Numbers 7:40

Summary

This verse specifies one component of a tribal offering: a single male goat designated as a chatat offering. It is part of a repeated formula listing sacrificial animals presented at the dedication of the tabernacle.

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 a single expression.
• 'izzim ("goats", H5795) — masculine plural noun, the construct's dependent term; together se'ir 'izzim functions as an idiom meaning "a male goat" (literally "a hairy one of the goat-flock").
• 'echad ("one", H0259) — cardinal number, here specifying the quantity of the goat just named.
• chatat ("a sin offering", H2403H) — feminine singular noun from the root meaning "to miss the mark / to sin"; it names both the offense and, as here, the sacrificial category addressing it.

What the text says

The Hebrew phrase opens with a construct chain, se'ir-'izzim ("male-goat of goats"), a common Biblical Hebrew way of naming a specific animal type by pairing a term for the individual (se'ir) with the plural of its species ('izzim). This construction does not mean "a goat belonging to other goats" in a literal sense but functions idiomatically to mean simply "a male goat," distinguishing it from sheep or cattle mentioned elsewhere in the same offering list.

The numeral 'echad ("one") follows to fix the quantity, and the preposition le ("to/for") attaches the purpose clause: the goat is le-chatat, "for a chatat." The noun chatat shares its root with the verb "to sin," so the offering is grammatically tied to the concept of wrongdoing, though in ritual contexts it designates the offering category itself rather than restating the sin. The sentence has no verb; it is a nominal clause, typical of these inventory-style verses that simply list items with their designated function.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the construct chain as χίμαρον ἐξ αἰγῶν ("a young goat from among goats"), using a partitive prepositional phrase (ἐξ αἰγῶν) instead of the Hebrew's direct construct pairing, achieving a similar sense of "a goat, specifically." For chatat, the LXX uses περὶ ἁμαρτίας ("concerning sin"), a periphrastic rendering rather than a single technical noun.

The Vulgate compresses the construct chain into a single word, hircum ("he-goat"), without separately representing 'izzim ("goats"), and translates chatat as pro peccato ("for sin"), paralleling the LXX's prepositional strategy but with a different preposition.