| 27. Linguistic Exegesis Numbers 15:27 begins with the conditional protasis marked by veim {וְאִם־ | wə-ʾim} ‘and if’, followed by the subject nefesh achat {נֶפֶשׁ אַחַת | ne-phéš ʾă-ḥat} ‘one person’. The verb techeta {תֶּחֱטָא | te-ḥé-ṭāʾ} ‘sins’ precedes the manner phrase bishgagah {בִּשְׁגָגָה | biš-gā-gāh} ‘unintentionally’. The apodosis is introduced by the vav-consecutive in vehikrivah {וְהִקְרִ֛יבָה | wə-hik-ri-váh} ‘and shall bring near’. The noun phrase ez bat-shnatah {עֵז בַּת־שְׁנָתָהּ | ʿēz baṯ-šnā-tā́h} ‘goat of her year’ expresses a one-year-old female goat in construct, and the preposition le- with chatat {לְחַטָּאת | le-ḥat-tā́t} ‘sin offering’ indicates the offering’s purpose. The shift from Hebrew VSO to English SVO preserves the legal protasis–apodosis while maintaining the condition’s force. |