Numbers 6:16

Summary

The verse describes a priest bringing offerings before Yehovah and performing the sin offering and the burnt offering. It continues a sequence of ritual actions using consecutive perfect verbs, indicating this action follows directly from a prior step in the procedure.

Key words

• hikRiv ("he will bring near", H7126) — hiphil (causative) form, sequential perfect; the priest causes the offerings to be brought forward, continuing the narrative chain begun by the preceding vav.
• koHen ("the priest", H3548) — masculine singular noun with definite article, marking the subject of the verbs hikRiv and asah.
• feNei ("before/face of", H6440) — masculine plural noun in construct state, forming the phrase "before Yehovah," locating the ritual action in the divine presence.
• asah ("he will offer/do", H6213) — qal sequential perfect, a general verb of "doing" here specifying the performance of the sin and burnt offerings.
• chataT ("sin offering", H2403) — feminine singular noun in construct with the following pronominal suffix "his," identifying the specific offering type.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built on two sequential perfect verbs joined by the narrative vav: ve-hikRiv ("and he will bring near") and ve-asah ("and he will do/offer"). Both verbs share the same subject, ha-koHen ("the priest"), stated explicitly only once, after the first verb. This construction presents two consecutive ritual actions as steps in one continuous procedure: first the priest brings the items forward, then he performs the offerings.

The phrase li-fenei Yehovah ("before Yehovah") uses the construct noun feNei ("face of") governing the divine name, a common idiom locating the action spatially and ritually in the presence of Yehovah. The two offerings, chataTo ("his sin offering") and olaTo ("his burnt offering"), are each marked by the object marker 'et and carry the third-person masculine singular suffix -o ("his"), indicating these offerings belong to the individual undergoing the ritual, not to the priest performing it. Both nouns are feminine singular in construct form with the suffix, a standard pattern for marking possession in Biblical Hebrew.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate renders ve-asah ("he will do/offer") with two purpose clauses, "tam pro peccato, quam in holocaustum" ("both for sin and as a burnt offering"), shifting from a verb of doing to a prepositional construction naming the purpose of the offerings. The LXX text provided reads ἔναντι Τυρίου where the Hebrew has li-fenei Yehovah ("before Yehovah"); the Greek term given does not match the expected rendering of the divine name found elsewhere in the Septuagint tradition. The Spanish RV1909 and SBLIBRE render asah as "hará su expiación" ("he will make his atonement"), introducing an interpretive gloss ("atonement") not present in the Hebrew verb itself, which simply means "to do/make."