Numbers 7:76

Summary

This brief fragment lists a single component of a tribal leader's offering: one male goat designated as a sin offering. It belongs to the repeated formulaic list of gifts brought by each tribal leader in Numbers 7.

Key words

• se'ir ("male goat of", H8163B) — masculine singular noun in construct state, linking it to the following word to form the phrase "male goat of goats," a construct pairing that specifies the type of animal.
• 'izzim ("goats", H5795) — masculine plural noun, the absolute noun completing the construct chain with se'ir, indicating the general category (goats) from which the specific male animal comes.
• 'echad ("one", H0259) — cardinal number, feminine singular in form though modifying a masculine noun in this construction, specifying the quantity as a single animal.
• le ("to/for", H9005) — preposition attached directly to the following noun, indicating purpose or designation ("for" a sin offering).
• chattat ("a sin offering", H2403H) — feminine singular noun, naming the ritual category or function this animal serves.

What the text says

The Hebrew phrase is built as a construct chain: se'ir 'izzim ("male goat of goats") functions as a single compound expression meaning "a male goat" (from the flock of goats), with 'izzim specifying the species. This construct pattern is common in Biblical Hebrew for specifying an animal by its general category. The numeral 'echad ("one") follows to quantify the animal precisely as a single unit, agreeing in the wider sentence with the item being counted despite the gender mismatch in isolated form.

The prefixed preposition le attached to chattat indicates the designated purpose of the animal: it is set apart "for" or "as" a sin offering. The noun chattat itself denotes the offering category, not the goat's inherent nature — the construction identifies function within a ritual system rather than an intrinsic quality of the animal itself. The verse fragment lacks a verb, consistent with its place in a list-like enumeration of items rather than a narrative sentence.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders se'ir 'izzim as chimaron ex aigōn ("a young goat from goats"), preserving the partitive sense explicitly with the preposition ex ("from"), where the Hebrew construct chain implies this relationship without a separate preposition. The Vulgate condenses the phrase to hircum ("male goat"), dropping the explicit reference to 'izzim ("goats") as a separate lexical item, integrating the specification into a single Latin noun. The Vulgate's pro peccato ("for sin") matches the functional sense of le-chattat but uses the more general term peccato ("sin") rather than a distinct term for "offering."