Deuteronomy 22:11

Summary

Deuteronomy 22:11 prohibits wearing a garment made of sha'atnez ("mixed stuff", H8162), specified as tzemer ("wool", H6785) and pishtim ("linens", H6593) combined yachdav ("together", H3162B). The verse is a short negative command addressed to a singular "you."

Key words

• lo' ("not", H3808) — the negation used with the imperfect verb, forming a standard prohibitive construction in Biblical Hebrew.
• til.bash ("you will wear", H3847) — qal imperfect, second person masculine singular; the imperfect form with lo' expresses a durative or general prohibition, not a one-time command.
• sha'atnez ("mixed stuff", H8162) — a rare noun, masculine singular, functioning here as the object of the verb; the text itself glosses its meaning through the following words.
• tzemer ("wool", H6785) and pishtim ("linens", H6593) — two masculine nouns (the second plural in form) joined by the conjunction u- ("and", H9002), specifying the two materials that make up the sha'atnez.
• yachdav ("together", H3162B) — adverb modifying how the wool and linen are combined, emphasizing their joint use rather than separate wearing.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is compact: negation + verb + object noun + apposition. Lo' til.bash ("you will not wear") governs a single direct object, sha'atnez. The three following words — tzemer, u-fishtim, yachdav — do not introduce a new clause but stand in apposition to sha'atnez, explaining what this term consists of: wool and linen(s) combined. The adverb yachdav ("together") is placed at the end, giving grammatical weight to the notion of combination — the prohibition concerns materials joined in one fabric, not simply the possession of both fibers separately.

The plural form of pishtim ("linens") contrasts with the singular tzemer ("wool"), a common feature in Hebrew for referring to certain plant-based materials, but it does not indicate multiple types of linen within the sentence's logic — both nouns function as the components of the single compound term sha'atnez.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders sha'atnez with kibdēlon ("adulterated" or "counterfeit thing"), a general term for something impure or falsified, followed by eria ("wool") and linon ("linen") "in the same [garment]" (en tō autō), which parallels the Hebrew's descriptive structure but uses a different lexical choice for the mixed material itself. The Vulgate paraphrases the whole clause as "a garment which is woven from wool and linen" (vestimento, quod ex lana linoque contextum est), replacing the noun sha'atnez with a descriptive relative clause and adding the verb "woven" (contextum), which is not present as a separate lexical item in the Hebrew text.