Numbers 5:9

Summary

The verse establishes that every sacred contribution stemming from the holy offerings of the Israelites, when brought to a priest, becomes that priest's possession. The syntax builds a chain of construct relationships specifying the source of these contributions before stating their final disposition.

Key words

• terumah ("contribution", H8641) — feminine singular noun naming the general category of offering under discussion; it stands in construct with what follows.
• qadeshei ("[the] holy things of", H6944G) — masculine plural construct form, linking this word to benei ("[the] people of"); indicates these are things set apart as holy belonging to Israel.
• yaqrivu ("they will bring near", H7126H) — hiphil (causative) imperfect, third person masculine plural; the causative stem indicates causing something to draw near, i.e., presenting an offering, with the imperfect marking future or ongoing action.
• lo ("to him", H9033 with H9005) — preposition plus third-person pronominal suffix, specifying the beneficiary (the priest) of the final clause.
• yihyeh ("it will belong", H1961) — qal imperfect, third person masculine singular; simple stem expressing future state of belonging.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence opens with ve-khol-terumah ("and every contribution"), immediately placed in construct with le-khol-qadshei venei-Yisra'el ("to all the holy things of the people of Israel"). This double construct chain (khol...qadshei...benei) narrows the category step by step: first "every contribution," then specified as belonging to "all the holy things," which in turn belong to "the people of Israel." The relative clause asher yaqrivu la-kohen ("which they will bring near to the priest") uses the hiphil imperfect yaqrivu, a causative form indicating the act of presenting or causing something to be brought near — the technical verb for offering something at the sanctuary.

The final clause, lo yihyeh ("to him it will belong"), places the prepositional phrase lo ("to him") before the verb yihyeh, a qal imperfect of hayah ("to be"). This word order foregrounds the beneficiary — the priest — before stating the verb of possession, emphasizing to whom the contribution accrues rather than the act of belonging itself.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the phrase with κατὰ πάντα τὰ ἁγιαζόμενα ("according to all the things being sanctified"), a participial construction differing from the Hebrew's construct noun qadshei ("holy things of"). The LXX also inserts τῷ κυρίῳ ("to the Lord") before τῷ ἱερεῖ ("to the priest"), a phrase absent from the Hebrew text, which mentions only la-kohen ("to the priest").

The Vulgate condenses the passage considerably, using primitiæ ("firstfruits") for terumah ("contribution", H8641) and omitting any equivalent for qadshei benei Yisra'el ("holy things of the people of Israel"), stating simply that these offerings "pertain to the priest" without the Hebrew's layered construct phrasing.