Numbers 7:64

Summary

Numbers 7:64 specifies one component of a leader's offering: a single male goat designated as a sin offering. The verse is a brief, formulaic clause typical of the repetitive lists in Numbers 7, where each tribal leader's donations are itemized.

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 complete its sense ("goat of...").
• 'izzim ("goats", H5795) — masculine plural noun, the absolute form completing the construct phrase; together with se'ir it yields "a male goat of the goats," i.e., a goat from the goat-herd.
• 'echad ("one", H0259) — cardinal number, marked in this data as feminine singular, specifying the quantity as a single animal.
• le- ("to", H9005) — prefixed preposition attached to the following noun, indicating purpose or destination ("for/toward").
• chattat ("a sin offering", H2403H) — feminine singular noun naming the offering category to which the goat is assigned.

What the text says

The verse consists of a construct chain, se'ir-'izzim ("a male goat of goats"), followed by the numeral 'echad ("one") and the prepositional phrase le-chattat ("for a sin offering"). The construct chain functions as a single grammatical unit: the first noun (se'ir) cannot stand alone in meaning without the second ('izzim), so the phrase together designates a specific type of animal — a male goat — drawn from the category "goats." The numeral 'echad then quantifies this unit as singular, confirming that only one such animal is meant.

The final element, le-chattat, uses the preposition le- to mark purpose: the goat is not merely described but assigned a cultic function, that of a chattat, a sin offering. The clause is elliptical — there is no verb — because it belongs to a longer list of offering items in Numbers 7, where the verb of giving or presenting occurs earlier in the passage and is understood to carry through each subsequent item.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders se'ir-'izzim as chimaron ex aigōn ("a young goat from goats"), preserving the construct sense with a prepositional phrase (ex) rather than a direct Hebrew construct chain. The Vulgate condenses the phrase to hircum ("male goat") without an explicit reference to "goats" as a category, and translates le-chattat as pro peccato ("for sin"), a slightly broader rendering than the specific cultic term "sin offering" found in the Hebrew and in the English versions (BSB, RV1909, SBLIBRE), which use "sin offering" or "ofrenda por el pecado."