Leviticus 17:16

Summary

The verse presents a conditional clause: if a person does not wash (his clothes) and does not bathe his body, he will bear his iniquity. It closes a legal instruction with a consequence attached to non-compliance with a purification requirement.

Key words

• 'Im ("if", H0518A) — conditional particle introducing the hypothetical case that structures the whole verse.
• yekhabbes ("he will wash", H3526H) — piel imperfect, an intensive stem often associated with washing garments; the object is not explicit in the Hebrew word-by-word data given here.
• basar ("body", H1320) — construct noun meaning "flesh/body," paired with the suffix -o ("his") to form "his body."
• yirchatz ("he will wash", H7364) — qal imperfect, the simple stem describing washing of the body directly (paired with basar, "body").
• nasa' ("he will bear", H5375J) — qal sequential perfect, continuing the narrative/legal sequence and expressing the resulting consequence ("bear").
• avon ("iniquity", H5771G) — construct noun meaning "iniquity/guilt," joined with the suffix -o ("his") to form "his iniquity."

What the text says

The verse is built as a conditional sentence introduced by 'Im ("if", H0518A) with the negation lo' ("not", H3808) repeated twice, each negating one of two verbs. The first verb, yekhabbes ("he will wash", H3526H), is in the piel stem, an intensive verbal form; the word-by-word data does not supply an explicit object for this verb in Hebrew, though the verb itself concerns washing. The second verb, yirchatz ("he will wash", H7364), is in the simple qal stem and is grammatically tied to besaro ("his body," from basar, H1320, construct + suffix H9023), forming the phrase "his body he will not wash."

The consequence is introduced by the narrative vav on nasa' ("he will bear", H5375J), a qal sequential perfect that continues the logical sequence begun by the conditional clause: failing to complete both washings results in the subject "bearing" (nasa') his avono ("his iniquity," from avon, H5771G, construct + suffix H9023). The construct + suffix pattern in both besaro and avono ties the nouns "body" and "iniquity" directly to the subject of the sentence, marking them as his own body and his own iniquity respectively.

Differences between versions

The LXX specifies the object of the first verb explicitly as τὰ ἱμάτια ("the garments"), and adds ὕδατι ("with water") to the second washing, details not present in the Hebrew word list provided. The Vulgate similarly supplies "vestimenta sua" ("his garments") as the object of the first verb, matching the LXX's explicit object rather than the unspecified Hebrew form. The LXX renders avon ("iniquity", H5771G) as ἀνόμημα ("lawless act/transgression"), a term with a different semantic emphasis than "iniquity" or "guilt."