Numbers 7:27

Summary

The verse lists three animals designated for a burnt offering: one young bull, one ram, and one lamb specified as being in its first year. This is part of a repeated formula in Numbers 7 describing tribal leaders' offerings at the tabernacle's dedication.

Key words

• par ("a young bull", H6499) — masculine singular noun, the first animal named, in absolute form (not construct) but followed by a construct phrase specifying its type.
• ben-baqar ("a young one of cattle", H1121/H1241) — construct chain literally "son of cattle," clarifying that the par belongs to the bovine category.
• 'ayil ("a ram", H0352A) — masculine singular noun, the second animal, standing independently with its own numeral 'echad ("one", H0259).
• keves-'echad ben-shenato ("a lamb... son of its year", H3532/H1121/H8141) — the lamb is further qualified by a second construct chain, "son of its year," meaning it is within its first year of age, with the pronominal suffix -o ("its", H9023) attached to shanah ("year").
• le'olah ("to/for a burnt offering", H9005/H5930A) — the preposition le- ("to") governs 'olah, indicating the purpose for which all three animals are designated.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is a simple list of three sacrificial animals, each marked with the numeral 'echad ("one", H0259) following its noun rather than preceding it, a common Hebrew word order for enumeration. The first animal, par ("a young bull", H6499), is specified through the construct phrase ben-baqar ("a young one of cattle", H1121/H1241), literally "son of cattle," which functions to identify the bovine category rather than indicating literal parentage — this is a standard Hebrew idiom for classifying young animals by species.

The third animal, keves ("a lamb", H3532), receives an additional qualifier: ben-shenato ("son of its year", H1121/H8141), again using the "son of" construction, this time to indicate age rather than species — the lamb is within its first year. The suffix -o ("its", H9023) on shanah ("year", H8141) ties this age specification directly to the lamb itself. All three animals are grouped under a single purpose clause at the end, le'olah ("for a burnt offering", H9005/H5930A), showing that the preceding list constitutes the components of one sacrificial category.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders ben-baqar ("a young one of cattle") as ek boōn ("from cattle"), using a prepositional phrase instead of the Hebrew construct chain, though the sense of bovine classification is preserved. The LXX also adds enniausion ("yearling") as an adjective modifying the lamb, corresponding to the Hebrew ben-shenato ("son of its year") but expressed as a single Greek adjective rather than a construct phrase. The Vulgate similarly compresses ben-shenato into the single Latin adjective anniculum ("yearling"), and renders ben-baqar as de armento ("from the herd"), both versions collapsing the Hebrew's two-word construct constructions into simpler adjectival or prepositional forms.