Numbers 8:13

Summary

The verse instructs that the Levites be made to stand before Aaron and his sons, and then be "waved" as a tenufah ("wave-offering", H8573) to Yehovah. The Hebrew describes two consecutive ritual actions using causative verb forms addressed to a single "you" (likely Moses).

Key words

• ha'amadta ("you will make stand", H5975G) — hiphil (causative) sequential perfect: the subject does not merely stand but causes the Levites to stand, a formal positioning act.
• Levi'im ("Levites", H3881) — masculine plural gentilic noun, the group being positioned and offered.
• lifnei ("before", H6440G) — construct noun meaning literally "in the face of," used twice (before Aaron, before his sons), marking spatial/ritual orientation.
• henafta ("you will wave", H5130B) — hiphil sequential perfect, the causative action of waving, paired grammatically with ha'amadta as the second step in the sequence.
• tenufah ("a wave-offering", H8573) — feminine singular noun, naming the ritual category into which the Levites are placed by the waving action.

What the text says

The verse is built on two sequential perfect verbs joined by the narrative vav (H9001): ha'amadta ("you will make stand") and henafta ("you will wave"). Both are hiphil forms, meaning the grammatical subject acts causatively upon the Levites rather than the Levites acting themselves — they are made to stand, and they are waved, by an external agent. This causative structure frames the Levites throughout as the object of ritual action rather than as active participants.

The double use of lifnei ("before", H6440G) — once for Aaron, once for "his sons" (banav, H1121A with 3ms suffix) — sets up a spatial sequence: the Levites are positioned in front of Aaron and separately in front of his sons, marked by the repeated preposition and conjunction ve- (H9002). The final clause names the purpose of the second verb: henafta ... tenufah la-YHWH, using the verb and its cognate noun tenufah together, a construction that reinforces the specific ritual category (waving) rather than a general offering.

Differences between versions

The LXX inserts an additional phrase, ἔναντι κυρίου ("before the Lord"), immediately after "you will stand," so that the Levites are said to stand "before the Lord, before Aaron, and before his sons" — a phrase not present in the Hebrew at that position. For henafta and tenufah, the LXX uses ἀποδώσεις ("you will give back/render") and ἀπόδομα ("a rendering"), terms built on the concept of giving rather than the Hebrew's waving gesture. The Vulgate renders the same clause as consecrabis oblatos Domino ("you will consecrate those offered to the Lord"), replacing the waving action entirely with a verb of consecration, so that the specific ritual gesture named by tenufah is not represented in either the LXX or Vulgate wording.