Leviticus 16:31

Summary

The verse declares a day as sha.Bat sha.ba.Ton ("a sabbath of sabbath-observance", H7676/H7677) for the community, commands the practice of 'i.ni.Tem ("you will afflict", H6031B) directed at naf.sho.tei.khem ("your selves", H5315I), and closes by classifying this as chu.Kat o.Lam ("a statute of perpetuity", H2708/H5769G).

Key words

• sha.Bat ("sabbath of", H7676) — feminine singular construct; grammatically bound to the next noun, forming a doubled expression from the same root.
• sha.ba.Ton ("sabbath observance", H7677) — masculine singular absolute noun completing the construct chain begun by sha.Bat, reduplicating the root ש-ב-ת for emphasis.
• 'i.ni.Tem ("you will afflict", H6031B) — piel stem (intensive/factitive) in sequential perfect, continuing the narrative chain begun by the vav on ve.'i.ni.Tem; second person masculine plural.
• naf.sho.tei.khem ("your selves", H5315I) — feminine plural construct noun with second person masculine plural suffix; grammatical object of the affliction, marked by the untranslated particle 'et (H0853).
• chu.Kat ("statute of", H2708) — feminine singular construct, forming a bound phrase with o.Lam ("perpetuity", H5769G) that classifies the preceding commands.

What the text says

The verse opens with a nominal (verbless) clause: sha.Bat sha.ba.Ton hi' la.khem — literally "a sabbath of sabbath-observance it [is] to you." The pronoun hi' (H1931, "it") functions as the copula linking the construct-chain subject to the prepositional phrase la.khem ("to you", H9005+H9036). The construct chain sha.Bat sha.ba.Ton stacks two nouns built on the same root, a grammatical pattern that intensifies the concept rather than simply repeating it.

The narrative vav on ve.'i.ni.Tem shifts the sentence from description to instruction, using a sequential perfect verb form that continues the flow of a preceding sequence. The verb stem is piel, an intensive binyan, applied to the root meaning "afflict" — grammatically this stem often carries factitive or intensive force compared to the simpler qal stem. The direct object is marked by the untranslated particle 'et (H0853) before naf.sho.tei.khem, a plural construct noun with a possessive suffix, literally "the selves of you."

The closing phrase chu.Kat o.Lam is a construct chain functioning appositionally, characterizing the entire preceding instruction as a fixed, enduring statute.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the opening construct chain as plural, σάββατα σαββάτων ("sabbaths of sabbaths"), where the Hebrew uses singular construct forms sha.Bat sha.ba.Ton. The LXX also inserts ἀνάπαυσις ("rest") and the finite verb ἔσται ("will be"), making explicit a copula that the Hebrew leaves to the pronoun hi'. The Vulgate similarly supplies "requietionis" (rest) and the connector "enim" (for), neither of which corresponds to a distinct Hebrew word in this verse. The modern Spanish SBLIBRE translates 'i.ni.Tem as "ayuno" ("fasting"), an interpretive rendering of the piel verb "to afflict" not lexically specified as fasting in the Hebrew text itself.