Leviticus 11:45
כִּי׀ אֲנִי יְהוָה הַֽמַּעֲלֶה אֶתְכֶם מֵאֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם לִהְיֹת לָכֶם לֵאלֹהִים וִהְיִיתֶם קְדֹשִׁים כִּי קָדוֹשׁ אָֽנִי׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
כִּ֣י׀ אֲנִ֣י יְהוָ֗ה הַֽמַּעֲלֶ֤ה אֶתְכֶם֙ מֵאֶ֣רֶץ מִצְרַ֔יִם לִהְיֹ֥ת לָכֶ֖ם לֵאלֹהִ֑ים וִהְיִיתֶ֣ם קְדֹשִׁ֔ים כִּ֥י קָד֖וֹשׁ אָֽנִי׃
ὅτι ἐγώ εἰμι κύριος ὁ ἀναγαγὼν ὑμᾶς ἐκ γῆς Αἰγύπτου εἶναι ὑμῶν θεός· καὶ ἔσεσθε ἅγιοι, ὅτι ἅγιός εἰμι ἐγὼ Κύριος.
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
Ego enim sum Dominus, qui eduxi vos de terra Ægypti, ut essem vobis in Deum. Sancti eritis, quia ego sanctus sum.
Yo soy Yehová, el que los sacó de la tierra de Egipto para ser su Dios. Sean santos, porque yo soy santo.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Porque yo soy Jehová, que os hago subir de la tierra de Egipto para seros por Dios: seréis pues santos, porque yo soy santo.
For I am the LORD, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt so that I would be your God; therefore be holy, because I am holy.
✦ What the text says
Summary
The verse presents a self-identification formula in which Yehovah names himself as the one who brought Israel up from Egypt, states the purpose of that act (to become their God), and draws a consequence: the addressees are to be holy because Yehovah himself is holy.
Key words
- ma.'a.Leh ("brought up", H5927H) — hiphil participle (causative, "the one who causes to go up"), with the article ha ("the/who", H9009) attached, forming a relative clause describing Yehovah: "the one who brought you up."
- h.Yot ("become / to be", H1961) — qal infinitive construct, expressing purpose ("in order to become") after the preposition li ("to", H9005).
- h.yi.Tem ("you will be", H1961) — qal sequential (waw-consecutive) perfect, continuing the narrative chain after the preceding clauses and marking a resulting state ("and you shall be").
- ke.do.Shim ("holy", H6918G) — adjective, masculine plural, agreeing with the plural subject "you" (the people addressed).
- ka.Do.osh ("holy", H6918G) — same adjective, but masculine singular, agreeing with the singular subject 'A.ni ("I", H0589), i.e., Yehovah.
What the text says
The verse is built on two parallel ki ("for/that", H3588A) clauses, one opening the verse and one closing it, each paired with the first-person pronoun 'a.Ni / 'A.ni ("I", H0589). This creates a frame: the first ki...'ani clause identifies Yehovah as the one who acted (bringing up from Egypt), and the second ki...'ani clause identifies Yehovah as holy. Between these two frames sits the purpose clause with the infinitive h.Yot ("to become", H1961) — the exodus act is presented as oriented toward a goal, "to become for you God" — and the sequential clause with h.yi.Tem ("you will be", H1961), which links grammatically to what precedes it as a continuation of the same chain of action rather than a separate command.
A grammatical detail not visible in translation is the adjective agreement: ke.do.Shim is plural (matching the addressed group), while ka.Do.osh is singular (matching Yehovah alone). The same root and gloss ("holy", H6918G) appears in both forms, but the number shift marks that the predicated quality is stated distinctly for the plural subject and for the singular subject within the same sentence structure.
Differences between versions
The LXX renders the second occurrence of "I" with an added title, Κύριος ("Lord"), producing "ὅτι ἅγιός εἰμι ἐγὼ Κύριος" ("for I, the Lord, am holy"), where the Hebrew text has only ka.Do.osh 'A.ni ("holy [am] I") without a repeated divine name. The Vulgate follows the Hebrew more closely at this point, using "quia ego sanctus sum" without adding a title.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.