Numbers 8:10

Summary

The verse instructs that the Levites be brought forward before Yehovah, and that the Israelites place their hands upon them. It describes two sequential actions: a presentation and a laying-on of hands, both directed toward the Levites.

Key words

• hikravta ("you will bring near", H7126H) — hiphil (causative) verb in sequential perfect, meaning the subject causes the Levites to approach; the causative stem signals that someone (the addressee, singular "you") actively brings them forward rather than the Levites approaching on their own.
• lifnei ("before", H6440G) — construct noun meaning literally "to the face of," used with Yehovah to express spatial/ceremonial presence in front of the divine name.
• sam'khu ("they will lay", H5564) — qal verb, sequential perfect, third person plural, continuing the narrative chain begun by hikravta; the subject shifts to "the sons of Israel."
• yedeihem ("their hands", H3027G + H9028) — dual construct noun with pronominal suffix, indicating the two hands of the group, syntactically marked as the object of the laying-on action via the 'et marker.
• ha-Leviyyim ("the Levites", H3881) — definite gentilic plural, appearing twice (as the object of bringing near, and as the target "upon" whom hands are laid), framing the verse structurally.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built as two linked clauses joined by narrative vav ("and"), both using the sequential perfect form, which continues a chain of prescribed actions (likely following instructions given earlier in the chapter). The first clause has an unstated second-person singular subject ("you") who performs the causative action hikravta, bringing "the Levites" (ha-Leviyyim) as direct object (marked by 'et) "before Yehovah" (lifnei Yehovah). The second clause shifts subject to "the sons of Israel" (benei Yisra'el), who perform the qal verb sam'khu, placing "their hands" (yedeihem, dual construct with suffix) "upon the Levites" ('al-ha-Leviyyim).

The repetition of ha-Leviyyim at both the start and end of the verse creates a structural frame: the Levites are first the object of being brought forward, then the object upon whom hands are laid. The dual form of yedei ("hands") specifically marks a pair of hands, a grammatical distinction not visible in translations that simply render "hands" as plural without indicating the dual count.

Differences between versions

The LXX uses ἔναντι Κυρίου ("before the Lord"), matching the Hebrew lifnei Yehovah closely. The Vulgate renders the first clause differently, using a temporal/circumstantial construction — Cumque Levitæ fuerint coram Domino ("And when the Levites shall have been before the Lord") — shifting the causative bringing-near action of the Hebrew hikravta into a passive positional clause, rather than preserving the causative "you shall bring near."