Numbers 15:8

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

When you prepare a bull for a burnt offering, or for a sacrifice, to accomplish a vow, or for peace-offerings to Yahweh;

World English Bible · Public Domain

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נֶ֥דֶר

neder

H5088

“vow”

Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute

Appears 60× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Genesis 28:20

Full BDB Definition

Origin: from H5087

TWOT: 1308a

vow, votive offering

About this verse

These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →

12: words
11: distinct lemmas
Pentateuch: section

Shared distinctive vocabulary

נֶ֥דֶר vow H5088 occurs in 57 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

2 verbs
7 nouns
3 conjunctions

Verb forms

תַעֲשֶׂ֥ה Qal · Imperfect
לְפַלֵּא Piel · Infinitive Construct

Repetition

A word recurs within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:

אוֹ or H176 ×2

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 22 words from the Hebrew and 28 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — closely comparable.

A rough comparison of the two English renderings, which tokenize alike — not a word-level alignment.

Word counts can differ between the Hebrew and the Greek without any difference in meaning — e.g. the Hebrew direct-object marker אֵת has no separate Greek word, and Greek often adds the article ὁ.

In the original languages it is 12 Hebrew tokens and 17 Greek tokens — but the two are counted differently (Hebrew bundles its prefixes and suffixes into one token; the Greek is in lemma form), so that isn’t a like-for-like length.

Cross-references

Topical passages linked to Numbers 15:8 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Leviticus 3:1 "'If his offering is a sacrifice of peace offerings; if he offers it from the herd, whether male or female, he shall offer it without blemish before Yahweh.
Leviticus 7:11–18 "'This is the law of the sacrifice of peace offerings, which one shall offer to Yahweh.
Leviticus 1:3 "'If his offering is a burnt offering from the herd, he shall offer a male without blemish. He shall offer it at the door of the Tent of Meeting, that he may be accepted before Yahweh.

Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).

Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint

The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.

These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.

Hebrew Numbers 15:8 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וְכִֽי תַעֲשֶׂ֥ה בֶן בָּקָ֖ר עֹלָ֣ה אוֹ זָ֑בַח לְפַלֵּא נֶ֥דֶר אֽוֹ שְׁלָמִ֖ים לַֽיהוָֽה

When you prepare a bull for a burnt offering, or for a sacrifice, to accomplish a vow, or for peace-offerings to Yahweh;

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Numbers 15:8 Septuagint · lemma form

ἐάν δέ ἀπό ὁ βοῦς ποιέω εἰς ὁλοκαύτωμα ἤ εἰς θυσία μεγαλύνω εὐχή ἤ εἰς σωτήριον κύριος

And if you⌃ sacrifice a bullock from the herd for a whole burnt offering or for a sacrifice, to perform a vow or a peace-offering to the Lord,

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) (Public Domain). How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →

Targum (Aramaic paraphrase)

The Targum is the ancient Jewish Aramaic paraphrase of the Hebrew Scriptures — an interpretive translation, not the Hebrew text itself. Onkelos (literal) and Pseudo-Jonathan (expansive) render the Torah, and Jonathan the Prophets. Coverage is partial: where no permissively-licensed English translation exists for a verse, only the Aramaic is shown. This is verse-level text, not a word-by-word alignment to the Hebrew.

Targum Onkelos Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)

וַאֲרֵי תַעְבֵּד בַּר תּוֹרֵי עֲלָתָא אוֹ נִכְסַת קוּדְשַּׁיָא לְפָרָשָׁא נִדְרָא אוֹ נִכְסַת קוּדְשַׁיָא קֳדָם יְיָ

(no public-domain English translation for this verse)

Targum Onkelos — Aramaic: “Onkelos Genesis” (public domain); “Onkelos Exodus” (public domain); “Onkelos Leviticus” (public domain); “Onkelos Numbers” (public domain); “Onkelos Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “J.W. Etheridge. The Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan Ben Uzziel on the Pentateuch. London: Longmans, Green, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)

וַאֲרוּם תַּעֲבֵּיד בַּר תּוֹרֵי עֲלָתָא אוֹ נִכְסְתָא לְפַרְשָׁא נִדְרָא אוֹ נִכְסַת קוּדְשַׁיָא קֳדָם יְיָ

But when he maketh a bullock a burnt offering, or a sacrifice for release from a vow, or a hallowed sacrifice before the Lord,

Targum Pseudo-Jonathan — Aramaic: “Targum Jonathan on Genesis” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Exodus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Leviticus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Numbers” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel, trans. J. W. Etheridge, London, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.

Commentary

Notes on Numbers 15:8 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.

Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(8) In performing a vow.—Rather, in making a special vow. (See Num_6:2.)

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John Gill's Exposition

And when thou preparest a bullock for a burnt offering,.... Which was a larger offering, and required a larger meat offering and drink offering, as Num 15:9 show:

or for a sacrifice in performing a vow or peace offerings unto the Lord; by which latter are meant freewill offerings; for though both sorts here mentioned were peace offerings, yet these were more particularly called so.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations

i.e. Or any other peace-offerings, to wit, such as were offered either freely or by command, which may be called

peace-offerings or thank-offerings, by way of eminency, because such are offered purely by way of gratitude to God, and with single respect to his command and honour; whereas the peace-offerings made it performance of a vow were made and offbred by way of contract, and with design of getting some advantage by them.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Whedon's Commentary on the Bible

Daniel D. Whedon

8. Peace offerings — See Lev_3:1; Lev_7:11-21, notes. 9-12.

According to the number — The purpose of this statute is to define the proportion of the meat and drink offering to the nature and number of the animals offered as peace offerings.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The Pulpit Commentary

Peace offerings. The sacrifices made of free-will, or made on solemn feast-days, would commonly be peace offerings. (see on Le 7)

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John Wesley's Explanatory Notes

Peace-offerings - Such as were offered either freely or by command, which may be called peace-offerings or thank- offerings, by way of eminency, because such are offered purely by way of gratitude to God, and with single respect to his honour, whereas the peace-offerings made in performance of a vow were made and offered, with design of getting some advantage by them.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

unfoldingWord translationNotes

Door43 World Missions Community

three-tenths of an ephah

You may convert this to a modern measure. AT: "six and one half liters" (See: Biblical Volume)

half a hin

You may convert this to a modern measure AT: "two liters" (See: Biblical Volume)

made by fire

This can be stated in active form. AT: "that you burn on the altar" (See: Active or Passive)

to produce a sweet aroma for Yahweh

"to produce a smell that pleases Yahweh." The Lord being pleased with the sincere worshiper who offers the sacrifice is spoken of as if God were pleased with the aroma of the sacrifice. AT: "to please Yahweh by offering it" (See: Metaphor)

translationWords

cow

burnt offering

sacrifice

fulfill

vow

fellowship offering

fire

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

Lesson kit

Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.

Numbers, in the Pentateuch, opens this verse with 12 words (11 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is neder (“vow”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

What does “vow” (neder) contribute to the verse as a whole?
Genesis 28:20 shares the word «vow» with this verse. How do the two illuminate each other?
“or” occurs 2× in this one verse. What is the effect of the repetition?
These translations render this verse differently; the difference is in the English rendering, not the original. What questions does that raise?
The verb «תַעֲשֶׂ֥ה» is Qal Imperfect. How does its form color the action?
Reading how Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers and John Gill's Exposition read this verse, where do the two commentators agree and where do they part?

Things to notice

This verse counts 12 Hebrew ↔ 17 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 16 words in this verse.
“or” occurs 2× in this single verse.
11 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 12 words in this verse.