Exodus 22:20

Summary

The verse states a legal-religious rule: whoever sacrifices to "gods" (other deities) is subject to destruction, with the sole exception of sacrificing to Yehovah. The sentence is structured as a conditional participial clause followed by a passive verdict.

Key words

• zoVeach ("[one who] sacrifices", H2076) — Qal participle, masculine singular, functioning as a generic subject: "the one who sacrifices" / "whoever sacrifices," describing an ongoing or characteristic action rather than a single event.
• 'Elohim ("gods", H0430J) — masculine plural noun, here referring to deities other than Yehovah, the object of the forbidden sacrifice, marked by the preposition la- ("to the").
• yochoRam ("he will be dedicated to destruction", H2763A) — Hophal imperfect, third person masculine. The Hophal stem is causative-passive, meaning the subject undergoes an action caused by another agent; the imperfect aspect marks this as a future or habitually applicable verdict.
• bilTi ("except", H1115) — a common-gender noun functioning here as a restrictive particle, introducing the sole exception to the preceding rule.
• vaD ("only", H0905H) with suffix o ("him", H9033) — construct form meaning literally "in his aloneness" or "to him alone," reinforcing exclusivity when combined with la-YHWH ("to Yehovah").

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence opens with a participle, zoVeach ("[one who] sacrifices", H2076), which in Biblical Hebrew legal style often functions as a conditional or generalizing clause: "whoever sacrifices..." This participial construction does not specify a single sacrificer but describes a class of action, making the statement applicable to any person performing this act. The object of the sacrifice is 'Elohim ("gods", H0430J), plural, referring to deities other than Yehovah.

The consequence is expressed by yochoRam ("he will be dedicated to destruction", H2763A), a Hophal imperfect verb. The Hophal stem indicates that the subject is acted upon by an external cause — the subject does not destroy himself but is destroyed by an outside agent, though that agent is not named in the text. The imperfect form allows this to be read as a future event or as a standing rule.

The exception is marked by bilTi ("except", H1115), followed by la-YHWH ("to Yehovah", H3068G) and le-vaDo ("to him alone", H0905H + H9033). The combination of "to Yehovah" plus "to him alone" doubles the restrictive force: the text names Yehovah specifically and then reinforces exclusivity with the construct noun vaD ("only") plus the third-person suffix "his."

Differences between versions

The LXX renders yochoRam with θανάτῳ ὀλεθρευθήσεται ("he will be destroyed by death"), adding the noun "death" as an instrumental dative not present as a separate lexical item in the Hebrew Hophal verb. The Vulgate uses occidetur ("he will be killed"), a simpler passive verb, without the double emphasis on destruction. The BSB and SBLIBRE render bilTi la-YHWH le-vaDo as "other than the LORD alone" or "no sea solo Yehová," collapsing the double marker (bilTi + le-vaDo) into a single exceptive clause, whereas the Hebrew maintains two distinct grammatical elements marking the exception.