Numbers 7:53

Summary

The verse lists the animals offered as zevach ha-shelamim ("sacrifice of the peace offerings", H2077/H8002) by Elishama son of Ammihud: two oxen, five rams, five goats, and five year-old lambs. It closes the enumeration of his offering with the formula identifying him as the donor.

Key words

• Zevach ("[the] sacrifice of", H2077) — masculine singular construct noun, linking directly to ha-shelamim to form the phrase "sacrifice of the peace offerings"; the construct state shows this is not a separate offering but a specification of the type of shelamim sacrifice.
• she.la.Mim ("peace offerings", H8002) — masculine plural noun with definite article, naming the category of sacrifice into which the following animals fall.
• chamishah ("five", H2568) — cardinal number, common gender, singular, repeated three times (for rams, goats, and lambs), each time governing a plural noun to indicate quantity.
• benei ("sons of", H1121H) — masculine plural construct of "son," used idiomatically with shanah ("a year", H8141) to express age — "sons of a year" meaning "year-old" or "one-year-old" animals.
• korban ("[was] the offering of", H7133A) — masculine singular construct noun, introduced by the demonstrative zeh ("this", H2088), forming the closing declarative formula "this is the offering of..."

What the text says

The verse continues an inventory format established earlier in the chapter, listing sacrificial animals in a fixed sequence: species followed by quantity. The construct chain zevach ha-shelamim ("sacrifice of the peace offerings") functions as a heading for this portion of the list, distinguishing it from other offering categories mentioned elsewhere in the chapter (such as burnt offerings or sin offerings). Each animal type — bakar ("ox", H1241), eilim ("rams", H352A), atudim ("goats", H6260), kevasim ("lambs", H3532) — is paired with its own numeral, with the number chamishah ("five") repeated for rams, goats, and lambs, while shenayim ("two", H8147) applies only to the oxen.

The phrase benei shanah ("sons of a year") is a construct idiom expressing age category rather than literal offspring; it modifies kevasim, specifying these lambs are one year old. The verse ends with the formula zeh korban ("this [is] the offering of"), using the demonstrative zeh to point back to the entire preceding list, followed by the construct korban naming the offering as belonging to Elishama (H476G) ben Ammihud ("son of Ammihud", H1121A/H5989G).

Differences between versions

The LXX renders shelamim as sōtēriou ("of salvation/deliverance"), a translation choice differing from the Hebrew term's more general sense of "peace offerings" as reflected in the Vulgate's pacificorum. The LXX also translates bakar ("ox", H1241) with the feminine damaleis ("heifers"), while the Hebrew and Vulgate (boves, "oxen") do not specify gender.