Leviticus 18:22

Summary

The verse states a prohibition addressed to a male ("you," second person masculine singular) regarding sexual relations with another male, framed with the same terminology used elsewhere for relations with a woman. It closes with a nominal clause declaring the act to be to'evah ("abomination", H8441).

Key words

• tishKav ("you will lie with", H7901I) — Qal imperfect, second person masculine singular; the imperfect aspect conveys a general or future prohibition ("you will not / you shall not"), not a single past event.
• mishkevei ("lyings of", H4904) — masculine plural noun in construct state, linking grammatically to the following noun; construct nouns in Hebrew show possession or close association ("the lyings of").
• ishah ("a woman", H0802G) — feminine singular noun, the term to which the construct mishkevei is bound, producing the idiom "the lyings of a woman."
• zakhar ("a male", H2145) — masculine singular adjective functioning here as the object of the sentence, marked by the preceding direct object marker 'et (H0853).
• hi' ("it/she", H1931) — third person singular pronoun agreeing grammatically with the feminine noun to'evah ("abomination", H8441), forming the closing nominal clause "it is an abomination."

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence opens with the object marker 'et (H0853) attached to zakhar ("a male", H2145), placing the object before the verb — a common fronting pattern in Biblical Hebrew that gives emphasis to what follows the negation lo' ("not", H3808). The verb tishkav ("you will lie with", H7901I) is a Qal imperfect second-person masculine form, addressing a male subject directly. The phrase mishkevei ishah ("the lyings of a woman", H4904 + H0802G) uses the construct plural of mishkav joined to ishah, an idiomatic expression describing the manner or category of sexual relation rather than a literal plural of "beds." Because mishkevei is in construct, its grammatical link to ishah determines the sense "as [one lies] with a woman," rather than a separate independent statement.

The final clause, to'evah hi' ("[is] an abomination, it", H8441 + H1931), is a short nominal sentence without a verb "to be," typical of Hebrew predicate nominal constructions. The pronoun hi' is feminine, agreeing with the feminine noun to'evah, and functions to identify the preceding action as belonging to the category so named.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the construct phrase mishkevei ishah with the noun κοίτην γυναικός ("bed/intercourse of a woman"), matching the Hebrew idiom closely. The Vulgate paraphrases with coitu femineo ("with feminine intercourse"), shifting the construct-noun structure into an ablative phrase describing manner, a difference in syntax rather than in the underlying elements identified in the Hebrew text.