Numbers 29:8

Summary

Numbers 29:8 instructs the community to bring a burnt offering to Yehovah consisting of one young bull, one ram, and seven yearling lambs, all required to be without blemish. The verse specifies both the composition of the offering and its sensory/ritual quality as a "soothing odor."

Key words

• hikravTem ("you will bring near", H7126H) — hiphil causative, sequential perfect, 2nd person masculine plural: the community is the causing agent of the offering's approach to the altar, continuing a prior sequence of instructions.
• reiach ("odor of", H7381) — masculine singular construct, linking grammatically to nichoach to form a fixed cultic phrase describing the offering's effect.
• nichoach ("soothing", H5207) — masculine singular, the quality attributed to the reiach, completing the construct phrase "odor of soothing."
• temimim ("unblemished", H8549G) — masculine plural adjective, agreeing with the plural animals just listed (particularly the seven lambs), marking a physical qualification requirement.
• ben-bakar ("a young one of cattle", H1121H + H1241) — construct chain specifying that par ("a young bull", H6499) is drawn specifically from cattle stock.

What the text says

The verse opens with the sequential verb hikravTem, a hiphil form indicating that the subject (the people, 2nd person plural) causes something to be brought near — here, an olah ("a burnt offering", H5930A). This offering is directed la-Yehovah ("to Yehovah"), followed immediately by the construct phrase reiach nichoach, literally "odor of soothing," a standard cultic expression describing the offering's effect rather than a separate object.

The animals are listed in sequence without connecting conjunctions: par ben-bakar 'echad ("one young bull of cattle"), 'ayil 'echad ("one ram"), and kevasim benei-shanah shiv'ah ("seven lambs, sons of a year"). The phrase benei shanah uses the construct "sons of a year" (H1121L + H8141) as an idiom for age — animals in their first year — rather than literal sonship. Each numeral ('echad, 'echad, shiv'ah) follows its respective noun, a pattern typical of Hebrew enumeration in ritual lists.

The closing clause, temimim yihyu lakhem ("unblemished they will be to/for you"), places the adjective temimim before the verb yihyu ("they will be", H1961, qal imperfect), giving emphasis to the qualifying condition. The preposition-plus-suffix lakhem ("to/for you") marks the requirement as directed at the offerers' responsibility to select unblemished animals.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders par ben-bakar as moschon hena ek boōn ("one calf from the cattle"), separating the offering terms holokautōmata and karpōmata kyriō in a way that adds structural elements not paralleled by a single Hebrew construct chain. The Vulgate's vitulum de armento unum follows the Hebrew construct sense of "one calf from the herd" closely. The Hebrew kevasim ... shiv'ah ("lambs ... seven") places the numeral after the noun, while the Vulgate's agnos anniculos immaculatos septem and LXX's amnous eniausious hepta both place the numeral last as well, though the Vulgate incorporates immaculatos ("unblemished") directly into the list, whereas the Hebrew states temimim yihyu lakhem as a separate clause following all three animal groups.