Numbers 29:36

Summary

The verse specifies the offerings to be brought on a particular day of the festal calendar: a burnt offering that is a fire offering producing a soothing odor for Yehovah, consisting of one young bull, one ram, and seven unblemished yearling lambs.

Key words

• hik.rav.Tem ("you will bring near", H7126H) — hiphil sequential perfect, second person plural; the causative stem indicates the worshippers cause the offering to approach the altar, and the sequential form links this act to the preceding verses' ritual sequence.
• 'o.Lah ("a burnt offering", H5930A) — feminine singular noun naming the offering category, one that is wholly consumed.
• Rei.ach ni.Cho.ach ("an odor of soothing", H7381 + H5207) — two nouns in construct chain, the first governing the second; together they describe the sensory/effect quality attributed to the fire offering.
• be.nei- sha.Nah ("sons of a year", H1121L + H8141) — construct phrase meaning "yearlings," specifying the age class of the lambs that follow.
• te.mi.Mim ("unblemished", H8549G) — masculine plural adjective agreeing with ke.va.Sim ("lambs", H3532), marking the required physical condition of the animals.

What the text says

The verse opens with the narrative vav on hik.rav.Tem, tying this instruction to the sequence of festival regulations already given. The hiphil stem of this verb frames the human subjects (plural "you") as causing the offering to be brought near, rather than simply "giving" it — a nuance the causative form preserves that a plain English "you shall offer" does not fully convey. The noun 'o.Lah is immediately followed by 'i.Sheh ("a fire offering of", H0801) in construct with Rei.ach ni.Cho.ach, building a chain: burnt-offering / fire-offering-of / odor-of / soothing. This construct stacking describes the offering as both a fire offering and one whose effect is a soothing odor, directed la-Yehovah ("to Yehovah"). The list of animals follows without conjunctions between the bull, ram, and lambs — each counted individually with the numeral 'e.Chad ("one", H0259) for the bull and ram, while the lambs receive the cardinal shiv.'Ah ("seven", H7651) placed after the noun phrase ke.va.Sim be.nei-shanah ("lambs, sons of a year"). The adjective te.mi.Mim closes the verse, modifying the lambs and specifying their unblemished condition.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the construct chain 'i.Sheh Rei.ach ni.Cho.ach as two separate phrases, "ὁλοκαυτώματα εἰς ὀσμὴν εὐωδίας" and "καρπώματα," splitting what the Hebrew presents as a single tightly bound noun chain into "whole burnt offerings for a scent of sweet savor" plus "fruit-offerings," effectively doubling the offering vocabulary where the Hebrew has one continuous construct sequence. The Vulgate compresses this into "holocaustum in odorem suavissimum," omitting a separate rendering of 'i.Sheh ("fire offering", H0801) as a distinct term.