Numbers 7:22

Summary

Numbers 7:22 lists a single item among the offerings brought by a tribal leader during the dedication of the altar: one male goat designated as a sin offering. The verse is a short, formulaic clause without a finite verb, typical of the inventory style used throughout this chapter.

Key words

• se'ir ("a male goat of", H8163B) — masculine singular noun in construct state, meaning it must be joined to the following word to form the phrase "goat of goats," i.e., a goat from the goat-kind.
• 'izzim ("goats", H5795) — masculine plural noun, the absolute form completing the construct chain begun by se'ir; together they specify the animal's species precisely.
• 'echad ("one", H0259) — cardinal number, marked here as feminine singular in the morphological data, functioning to quantify the goat as a single specimen.
• le- ("to", H9005) — prefixed preposition attached to the next noun, indicating purpose or destination ("for" a sin offering).
• chattat ("a sin offering", H2403H) — feminine singular noun naming the offering category to which the goat is assigned.

What the text says

The Hebrew clause has no verb; it simply names an offering item, continuing a list that runs across several verses of Numbers 7. The construct phrase se'ir 'izzim ("goat of goats") is a common way in Biblical Hebrew to specify an animal by its kind — literally "a goat from among goats" — functioning as an idiom for "a male goat" as a distinct species reference rather than a redundant doubling. The numeral 'echad ("one") follows to quantify this animal as singular, and the prefixed preposition le- ("to") attached to chattat ("a sin offering") indicates the purpose for which the goat is designated, producing the sense "one male goat for a sin offering."

The grammatical data marks 'echad as feminine singular even though it modifies the masculine construct phrase se'ir 'izzim; the provided morphology reflects this as given, without further explanation of the agreement pattern. The absence of a verb is typical of list-style administrative or ritual texts, where each clause simply names an object and its function rather than describing an action.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the phrase as χίμαρον ἐξ αἰγῶν ἕνα ("a young goat from goats, one"), using a prepositional phrase (ἐξ αἰγῶν, "from goats") to represent the Hebrew construct chain se'ir 'izzim, rather than a direct construct-noun equivalent. The Vulgate simplifies this to hircum ("a male goat"), omitting explicit reference to "goats" as a category and rendering chattat as pro peccato ("for sin"), a slightly more general phrase than "sin offering."