Numbers 8:21

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex) Numbers 8:21 appears in the Hebrew Old Testament. The text above is from the Westminster Leningrad Codex. Each word links to its Strong’s number, a concise gloss, and parsing drawn from the Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible morphology. Click any word for its full Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB) entry.
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Numbers 8:21 (World English Bible). Public Domain. Lemma interlinear Bible study tool, https://lemma.gebible.app/v/numbers/8/21.

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The Levites purified themselves from sin, and they washed their clothes; and Aaron offered them for a wave offering before Yahweh; and Aaron made atonement for them to cleanse them.
World English Bible · Public Domain
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Compare translations 3

The same verse in 3 English versions, stacked beneath the original-language interlinear above. Click any original word for its lexicon entry.

Each is an independent rendering of the whole verse — the interlinear is not word-aligned to these translations.

Highlighted words mark where these versions differ — a whole-verse word diff, not a word-by-word alignment.

  • World English Bible Public Domain
    The Levites purified themselves from sin, and they washed their clothes; and Aaron offered them for a wave offering before Yahweh; and Aaron made atonement for them to cleanse them.
  • King James Version Public Domain
    And the Levites were purified, and they washed their clothes; and Aaron offered them as an offering before the LORD; and Aaron made an atonement for them to cleanse them.
  • unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
    And the Levites purified themselves, and they washed their clothes, and Aaron raised them a raised offering to the face of Yahweh, and Aaron made atonement for them to cleanse them.

unfoldingWord Literal Text — © unfoldingWord, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Word-aligned USFM3 via Door43 (git.door43.org/unfoldingWord/en_ult).

Versions to compare (up to 4)

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Show all 18 translations

Every available English version of this verse, each an independent rendering of the whole verse.

  • World English Bible Public Domain
    The Levites purified themselves from sin, and they washed their clothes; and Aaron offered them for a wave offering before Yahweh; and Aaron made atonement for them to cleanse them.
  • Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
    The Levites purified themselves and washed their clothes, and Aaron presented them as a wave offering before the LORD. Aaron also made atonement for them to cleanse them.
  • Majority Standard Bible Public Domain
    The Levites purified themselves and washed their clothes, and Aaron presented them as a wave offering before the LORD. Aaron also made atonement for them to cleanse them.
  • King James Version Public Domain
    And the Levites were purified, and they washed their clothes; and Aaron offered them as an offering before the LORD; and Aaron made an atonement for them to cleanse them.
  • American Standard Version (1901) Public Domain
    And the Levites purified themselves from sin, and they washed their clothes: and Aaron offered them for a wave-offering before Jehovah; and Aaron made atonement for them to cleanse them.
  • Revised Version (1885) Public Domain
    And the Levites purified themselves from sin, and they washed their clothes; and Aaron offered them for a wave offering before the LORD; and Aaron made atonement for them to cleanse them.
  • Geneva Bible (1599) Public Domain
    So the Leuites were purified, and washed their clothes, and Aaron offred them as a shake offring before the Lord, and Aaron made an atonement for them, to purifie them.
  • Douay-Rheims (1899) Public Domain
    And they were purified, and washed their garments. And Aaron lifted them up in the sight of the Lard, and prayed for them,
  • Young's Literal Translation Public Domain
    And the Levites cleanse themselves, and wash their garments, and Aaron waveth them a wave-offering before Jehovah, and Aaron maketh atonement for them to cleanse them,
  • Literal Standard Version CC BY-SA 4.0
    And the Levites cleanse themselves, and wash their garments, and Aaron waves them [as] a wave-offering before YHWH, and Aaron makes atonement for them to cleanse them,
  • Unlocked Literal Bible CC BY-SA 4.0
    The Levites purified themselves and washed their clothing, and Aaron presented them as a wave offering to Yahweh and he made atonement for them to cleanse them.
  • unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
    And the Levites purified themselves, and they washed their clothes, and Aaron raised them a raised offering to the face of Yahweh, and Aaron made atonement for them to cleanse them.
  • Darby Bible Public Domain
    And the Levites purified themselves from sin, and they washed their garments; and Aaron offered them as a wave-offering before Jehovah; and Aaron made atonement for them to cleanse them.
  • World Messianic Bible Public Domain
    The Levites purified themselves from sin, and they washed their clothes; and Aaron offered them for a wave offering before the LORD and Aaron made atonement for them to cleanse them.
  • Webster's Bible Public Domain
    And the Levites were purified, and they washed their clothes; and Aaron offered them as an offering before the LORD; and Aaron made an atonement for them to cleanse them.
  • Free Bible Version CC BY-SA 4.0
    The Levites purified themselves and washed their clothes. Then Aaron presented them as a wave offering to the Lord. Aaron also presented the sacrifice to make them right with the Lord so they would be clean.
  • Bible in Basic English Public Domain
    And the Levites were made clean from sin, and their clothing was washed, and Aaron gave them for a wave offering before the Lord; and Aaron took away their sin and made them clean.
  • JPS Tanakh (1917) Public Domain
    And the Levites purified themselves, and they washed their clothes; and Aaron offered them for a sacred gift before the LORD; and Aaron made atonement for them to cleanse them.

Literal Standard Version (2020), Covenant Press — licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API (eBible.org). Unlocked Literal Bible (unfoldingWord) — licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API (eBible.org). unfoldingWord Literal Text — © unfoldingWord, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Word-aligned USFM3 via Door43 (git.door43.org/unfoldingWord/en_ult). Free Bible Version, Dr. Jonathan Gallagher — licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API (eBible.org).

Word by word

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תְּנוּפָ֖ה
tᵉnûwphâh
H8573
“wave offering”
Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute
Part of Speech
Noun
Type
Common
Gender
Feminine
Number
Singular
State
Absolute
Full BDB Definition

Origin: from H5130

TWOT: 1330b

swinging, waving, wave offering, offering - a swinging, brandishing - of God's hand, weapons - waving, wave-offering (technical term of sacrifice) - offering (of gold or brass)
  1. וַיִּֽתְחַטְּא֣וּ châṭâʼ H2398 “and · to sin” Conjunction + Verb, Hithpael, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural
  2. הַלְוִיִּ֗ם Lêvîyîy H3881 “the · Levites” Particle, Definite Article + Noun, Gentilic, Masculine, Plural, Absolute
  3. וַֽיְכַבְּסוּ֙ kâbaç H3526 “and · to wash” Conjunction + Verb, Piel, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural
  4. בִּגְדֵיהֶ֔ם beged H899 “garments · their” Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Construct + Suffix, Personal, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural
  5. וַיָּ֨נֶף nûwph H5130 “and · to wave” Conjunction + Verb, Hiphil, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular
  6. אַהֲרֹ֥ן ʼAhărôwn H175 “Aaron” Noun, Proper
  7. אֹתָ֛ם ʼêth H853 “- · them” Particle, Direct Object + Suffix, Personal, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural
  8. לִפְנֵ֣י pânîym H6440 “to/for · face(s) of” Preposition + Noun, Common, Both, Plural, Construct
  9. יְהוָ֑ה Yᵉhôvâh H3068 “LORD” Noun, Proper
  10. וַיְכַפֵּ֧ר kâphar H3722 “and · to atone” Conjunction + Verb, Piel, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular
  11. עֲלֵיהֶ֛ם ʻal H5921 “upon · them” Preposition + Suffix, Personal, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural
  12. אַהֲרֹ֖ן ʼAhărôwn H175 “Aaron” Noun, Proper
  13. לְטַהֲרָֽם ṭâhêr H2891 “to cleanse · them” Preposition + Verb, Piel, Infinitive Construct + Suffix, Personal, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural

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 →

14
words
13
distinct lemmas
Pentateuch
section

Shared distinctive vocabulary

תְּנוּפָ֖ה wave offering H8573 occurs in 28 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

  • 5 verbs
  • 7 nouns
  • 1 preposition
  • 1 particle

Verb forms

  • וַיִּֽתְחַטְּא֣וּ Hithpael · Sequential Imperfect
  • וַֽיְכַבְּסוּ֙ Piel · Sequential Imperfect
  • וַיָּ֨נֶף Hiphil · Sequential Imperfect
  • וַיְכַפֵּ֧ר Piel · Sequential Imperfect
  • לְטַהֲרָֽם Piel · Infinitive Construct

Repetition

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

  • אַהֲרֹ֥ן Aaron H175 ×2

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 30 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 14 Hebrew tokens and 22 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

6

Topical passages linked to Numbers 8:21 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

  • Numbers 8:7 Thus shall you do to them, to cleanse them: sprinkle the water of cleansing on them, let them shave their whole bodies with a razor, and let them wash their clothes, and cleanse themselves.
  • Numbers 8:11–13 and Aaron shall offer the Levites before Yahweh for a wave offering, on the behalf of the children of Israel, that it may be theirs to do the service of Yahweh.
  • Numbers 8:15 "After that, the Levites shall go in to do the service of the Tent of Meeting: and you shall cleanse them, and offer them as a wave offering.
  • Numbers 19:19 and the clean person shall sprinkle on the unclean on the third day, and on the seventh day: and on the seventh day he shall purify him; and he shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and shall be clean at even.
  • Numbers 3:12 "Behold, I have taken the Levites from among the children of Israel instead of all the firstborn who open the womb among the children of Israel; and the Levites shall be mine:
  • Numbers 19:12 the same shall purify himself therewith on the third day, and on the seventh day he shall be clean: but if he doesn't purify himself the third day, then the seventh day he shall not be clean.

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 8:21 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וַיִּֽתְחַטְּא֣וּ הַלְוִיִּ֗ם וַֽיְכַבְּסוּ֙ בִּגְדֵיהֶ֔ם וַיָּ֨נֶף אַהֲרֹ֥ן אֹתָ֛ם תְּנוּפָ֖ה לִפְנֵ֣י יְהוָ֑ה וַיְכַפֵּ֧ר עֲלֵיהֶ֛ם אַהֲרֹ֖ן לְטַהֲרָֽם

The Levites purified themselves from sin, and they washed their clothes; and Aaron offered them for a wave offering before Yahweh; and Aaron made atonement for them to cleanse them.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Numbers 8:21 Septuagint · lemma form

καί ἁγνίζω ὁ λευίτης καί πλύνω ὁ ἱμάτιον καί ἀποδίδωμι αὐτός ἀαρών ἀπόδομα ἔναντι κύριος καί ἐκἱλάσκομαι περί αὐτός ἀαρών ἀποἁγνίζω αὐτός

So the Levites purified themselves and washed their garments; and Aaron presented them as a gift before the Lord, and Aaron made atonement for them to purify them.

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)

2

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.

  1. Targum Onkelos Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)
    וְאִדַכִּיוּ לֵוָאֵי וְחַוָרוּ לְבוּשֵׁיהוֹן וַאֲרֵם אַהֲרֹן יָתְהוֹן אֲרָמָא קֳדָם יְיָ וְכַפֵּר עֲלֵיהוֹן אַהֲרֹן לְדַכּוֹאֵיהוֹן

    (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.

  2. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)
    וְאִדְכִּיאוּ לֵיוָאֵי וְחַוָרוּ לְבוּשֵׁיהוֹן וַאֲרֵים אַהֲרן יַתְהוֹן אֲרָמָא קֳדָם יְיָ וְכַפֵּר עֲלֵיהוֹן אַהֲרן לְדַכּוֹאֵיהוֹן

    And the Levites were purified, and they washed their raiment; and Aharon presented them as an elevation before the Lord. And Aharon made atonement for them to purify them.

    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 8:21 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 →

Adam Clarke's Commentary

Verse 21. And Aaron made an atonement for them] Though the Levites had been most solemnly consecrated to the Lord's service, and though all legal washings and purifications were duly performed on the occasion, yet they could not approach God till an atonement had been made for them. How strange is it, after all these significations, of the will and purpose of God relative to man, that any priest or any people will attempt to draw nigh to God without an atonement! As sure as God hath spoken it, there is no entrance into the holiest but through the blood of Jesus, Heb 10:19-20.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne

21. purified themselves from sin] lit. ‘unsinned themselves.’ See on Num_31:19.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John Gill's Exposition

And after that went the Levites in,.... Into the court of the tabernacle, being at the door of it when the above rites and ceremonies of their consecration were performed:

to do their service in the tabernacle of the congregation, before Aaron and his sons; in their presence, and by their order, as they should direct them:

as the Lord had commanded Moses, so did they unto them; Aaron and his sons did to the then present Levites according to the command of God by Moses; they exactly observed every punctilio of it, and complied with it; and this the sons of Aaron did continually to the sons of the Levites, as Aben Ezra remarks, in all succeeding ages; when the Levites were consecrated to their service, the same things were done unto them that are here ordered.

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

Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary

Lifted. Hebrew tenupha, Exodus xxix. 24. Perhaps only a few were received at once. (Menochius) --- Prayed. Hebrew means also "to expiate, or redeem," as ver. 19.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Matthew Poole's English Annotations

The Levites were purified by washing and sprinkling and sacrifices. See Lev 15:13-15; Num 19:11, &c.

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

21. Aaron offered them — As a wave offering, by marching them to and fro before the altar.

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

Were purified, or "purified themselves." It refers not to the ceremonial sprinkling, but to the personal preparation prescribed.

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

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 14 words (13 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is tᵉnûwphâh (“wave offering”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

  1. What does “wave offering” (tᵉnûwphâh) contribute to the verse as a whole?
  2. How does Exodus 29:24, which shares the word «wave offering», read alongside this verse?
  3. What does the repetition of “Aaron” (2× in this one verse) do in this verse?
  4. The translations on this page render this verse differently — a whole-verse word diff, not a word-by-word alignment. What might account for the different wordings?
  5. «וַיִּֽתְחַטְּא֣וּ» is a Hithpael Sequential Imperfect verb. How does that grammatical form shape the action described?
  6. Compare how Adam Clarke's Commentary and The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges read this verse. Where do they agree or differ?

Things to notice

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Old Testament edition

Read the OT as the Masoretic Hebrew (MT) or the Greek Septuagint (LXX).

English shown for the Greek Septuagint (in the Hebrew ↔ Greek comparison).

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