Numbers 4:16

Summary

The verse specifies the administrative responsibility of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, over key sanctuary items: the oil for the light, the aromatic incense, the continual grain offering, and the anointing oil. It further extends his oversight to the entire tabernacle and everything within it, including the sanctuary and its equipment.

Key words

• fekuddat ("oversight of", H6486) — feminine singular construct noun, appearing twice (positions 2 and 23), framing the verse as a list of items under a single administrative charge; the construct form links it directly to what follows.
• shemen ("oil of", H8081) — masculine singular construct, used twice (for ha-ma'or, "the light," and ha-mishchah, "the anointing"), marking two distinct oils under Eleazar's charge.
• qetoret ("incense of", H7004) — feminine singular construct, linked to ha-sammim ("the perfumes/spices", H5561), forming the phrase for the aromatic incense.
• minchat ("grain offering of", H4503G) — feminine singular construct, joined to ha-tamid ("continuity", H8548), designating the offering performed on a regular basis.
• mishkan ("tabernacle", H4908) — masculine singular noun, definite, the object of the second fekuddat, broadening the scope of oversight from specific items to the whole structure.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built as a chain of construct phrases governed by fekuddat ("oversight of", H6486), each construct noun taking a following noun as its dependent: shemen ha-ma'or ("oil of the light"), qetoret ha-sammim ("incense of the perfumes"), minchat ha-tamid ("grain offering of the continuity"), and shemen ha-mishchah ("oil of the anointing"). This construct chain places Eleazar's name at the head of the sentence, followed immediately by his patronymic ben-Aharon ha-kohen ("son of Aaron the priest"), before the list of items under his charge begins. The syntax does not use a verb of possession or duty explicitly; instead the noun fekuddat itself carries the sense of an appointed charge, and its repetition (once for the specific cultic items, once for the tabernacle as a whole) creates two parallel spheres of responsibility within the same verse.

The second occurrence of fekuddat ("oversight of", H6486) governs kol-ha-mishkan ("all the tabernacle") and is extended by ve-kol-'asher-bo ("and all that is in it", using H0834A the relative particle 'asher), followed by two prepositional phrases with be- ("in/with", H9003): be-qodesh ("in the holy place", H6944G) and u-vekhelav ("and in its equipment", H3627 with 3rd person suffix). The structure moves from named substances to the totality of the sacred space and its furnishings, using repetition of the construct noun to bind both scopes to Eleazar's charge without repeating a verb.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the first fekuddat as epískopos ("overseer"), a personal title applied to Eleazar himself, whereas the Hebrew fekuddat ("oversight of", H6486) is an abstract noun describing the charge, not a title for the person. The Vulgate follows a similar personalizing approach with "ad cujus curam pertinet" ("to whose care it pertains"), also shifting the abstract Hebrew construct into a descriptive clause about Eleazar's duty rather than preserving the noun-chain structure of the Hebrew.