Numbers 8:12

Summary

The verse describes a two-part ritual act: the Levites laying their hands on the heads of bulls, followed by an offering of one bull as a sin offering and one as a burnt offering to Yehovah, with the stated purpose of making atonement for the Levites.

Key words

• yis.me.Khu ("they will lay", H5564) — qal imperfect, third person masculine plural; describes the Levites' collective, ongoing/future act of laying hands.
• ye.dei.hem ("their hands", H3027G + suffix) — dual construct form followed by a possessive suffix, indicating both hands of the Levites together, "hands of them."
• 'a.seh ("offer", H6213I) — qal imperative, second person masculine singular; a command directed at a single addressee (not the Levites), switching grammatical subject and mood from the previous clause.
• cha.Tat ("a sin offering", H2403H) — feminine singular noun; grammatically feminine despite modifying ha.'e.Chad ("the one," H0259), also feminine here, describing one of the two bulls by its ritual function.
• kha.Per ("make atonement", H3722A) — piel infinitive construct with prefixed le ("to"), expressing purpose: "in order to atone."

What the text says

The verse contains two grammatically distinct actions. The first clause, ve.ha.l.vi.Yim yis.me.Khu 'et-ye.dei.hem 'al rosh ha.pa.Rim ("and the Levites will lay their hands upon the head of the bulls"), uses a third-person plural imperfect verb, making the Levites themselves the grammatical subject of the hand-laying action. The verb yis.me.Khu ("they will lay", H5564) carries a durative or future nuance typical of the imperfect aspect in qal, suggesting this is either a repeated ritual instruction or a forthcoming action rather than a single completed event.

The second clause shifts abruptly to a second-person singular imperative, va.'a.seh ("and offer", H6213I). This form addresses a single individual — not the Levites as a group — commanding him to perform the offering. The two bulls are distinguished only by the numeral 'e.Chad ("one", H0259) used twice, each governed by the accusative marker 'et, and specified by the following nouns cha.Tat ("a sin offering", H2403H) and 'o.Lah ("a burnt offering", H5930A). Both offering-nouns and the numeral are feminine in form, matching grammatically even though the animals (pa.Rim, "young bulls", H6499) are masculine plural nouns — the ritual category rather than the animal's grammatical gender governs the numeral's agreement here.

The final phrase, le.kha.Per 'al-ha.l.vi.Yim ("to make atonement upon/for the Levites"), uses a piel infinitive construct with the preposition le, expressing the purpose clause that governs the entire sacrificial sequence: the offerings exist specifically 'al ("on/for", H5921A) the Levites.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the imperative 'a.seh ("offer", singular "you shall do") as ποιήσει ("he will do," third-person singular future), differing from the Hebrew's direct second-person command. The Vulgate similarly shifts to facies ("you will do," second person singular future indicative) and depreceris ("you might plead/intercede," subjunctive), softening the imperative force found in the Hebrew 'a.seh. The English versions (BSB, RV1909, SBLIBRE) generally follow the Hebrew's imperatival sense by rendering it as "offer" or "ofrecerás," though SBLIBRE uses "ustedes ofrecerán" (plural "you"), diverging from the Hebrew's singular addressee.