Leviticus 17:3
אִישׁ אִישׁ מִבֵּית יִשְׂרָאֵל אֲשֶׁר יִשְׁחַט שׁוֹר אוֹ־כֶשֶׂב אוֹ־עֵז בַּֽמַּחֲנֶה אוֹ אֲשֶׁר יִשְׁחַט מִחוּץ לַֽמַּחֲנֶֽה׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
אִ֥ישׁ אִישׁ֙ מִבֵּ֣ית יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל אֲשֶׁ֨ר יִשְׁחַ֜ט שׁ֥וֹר אוֹ־כֶ֛שֶׂב אוֹ־עֵ֖ז בַּֽמַּחֲנֶ֑ה א֚וֹ אֲשֶׁ֣ר יִשְׁחַ֔ט מִח֖וּץ לַֽמַּחֲנֶֽה׃
Ἄνθρωπος ἄνθρωπος τῶν υἱῶν Ἰσραὴλ ἢ τῶν προσηλύτων ἢ τῶν πρὸ ἐν ὑμῖν ὄις ἂν σφάξῃ μόσχον ἢ πρόβατον ἢ αἶγα ἐν τῇ παρεμβολῇ καὶ ὃς ἂν σφάξῃ ἔξω τῆς παρεμβολῆς
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
Homo quilibet de domo Israël, si occiderit bovem aut ovem, sive capram, in castris vel extra castra,
Cualquier hombre de la casa de Israel que degüelle un becerro, un cordero o una cabra dentro del campamento, o que lo degüelle fuera del campamento,
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Cualquier varón de la casa de Israel que degollare buey, ó cordero, ó cabra, en el real, ó fuera del real,
‘Anyone from the house of Israel who slaughters an ox, a lamb, or a goat in the camp or outside of it
✦ What the text says
Summary
The verse opens the legal formula identifying who is addressed: any member of the house of Israel who slaughters an ox, a young ram, or a goat, whether the act occurs inside the camp or outside it. The sentence sets up two parallel conditional clauses distinguishing the location of the slaughter.
Key words
- 'ish ("a person", H0376G) — repeated twice in sequence ('ish 'ish), a Hebrew idiom of doubling that expresses distribution: "each and every man," "anyone whatsoever," rather than a single specific individual.
- 'asher ("who", H0834A) — relative particle introducing the conditional clause; it appears twice (words 6 and 16), each time launching a separate scenario (slaughter ba-machaneh / slaughter mi-chutz la-machaneh).
- yishchat ("he will cut the throat of", H7819A) — qal imperfect, third person masculine singular; the imperfect aspect marks an action not yet realized, fitting the case-law style ("if/when someone slaughters"). The verb recurs identically in both clauses (words 7 and 17).
- ba-machaneh ("in the camp", H4264 with prefixed preposition+article H9003) — locative phrase marking the first scenario.
- mi-chutz la-machaneh ("from outside to the camp", H2351 + H4264) — a construct chain with two prepositions (mi + la) marking the second, opposite scenario: slaughter performed away from the camp.
What the text says
The sentence is built as a legal casuistic formula: subject ('ish 'ish), origin (mi-Beit Yisra'El), and then two parallel relative clauses introduced by 'asher, each governed by the same verb yishchat but differing only in the locative complement — ba-machaneh versus mi-chutz la-machaneh. The repetition of the verb in identical grammatical form (qal imperfect) in both clauses creates a mirrored structure: the same action, evaluated under two opposite spatial conditions. The doubling of 'ish at the very start signals that the law applies to any individual, not a designated class, before the text narrows the scope to those "from the house of Israel." The three animals named — shor ("an ox", H7794), kesev ("a young ram", H3775), 'ez ("a goat", H5795) — are joined by the conjunction 'o ("or", H0176A), listing the domestic animals covered by the following legal case without further qualification in the Hebrew.
Differences between versions
The LXX (Swete) expands the addressed group beyond the Hebrew's mi-Beit Yisra'El ("from the house of Israel"), adding "or of the proselytes, or of those who are among you" (τῶν προσηλύτων ἢ τῶν πρὸ ἐν ὑμῖν), a phrase with no counterpart in the Hebrew text as given. The Vulgate's Homo quilibet de domo Israël corresponds closely to the Hebrew's doubled 'ish 'ish mi-Beit Yisra'El, rendering the distributive sense with quilibet ("whoever, any one at all") rather than reproducing the repetition itself.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.