Leviticus 18:26
וּשְׁמַרְתֶּם אַתֶּם אֶת־חֻקֹּתַי וְאֶת־מִשְׁפָּטַי וְלֹא תַעֲשׂוּ מִכֹּל הַתּוֹעֵבֹת הָאֵלֶּה הָֽאֶזְרָח וְהַגֵּר הַגָּר בְּתוֹכְכֶֽם׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
Tap a word to see its entry
✦ The same verse in five languages
וּשְׁמַרְתֶּ֣ם אַתֶּ֗ם אֶת־חֻקֹּתַי֙ וְאֶת־מִשְׁפָּטַ֔י וְלֹ֣א תַעֲשׂ֔וּ מִכֹּ֥ל הַתּוֹעֵבֹ֖ת הָאֵ֑לֶּה הָֽאֶזְרָ֔ח וְהַגֵּ֖ר הַגָּ֥ר בְּתוֹכְכֶֽם׃
καὶ φυλάξεσθε πάντα τὰ νόμιμά μου καὶ πάντα τὰ προστάγματά μου, καὶ οὐ ποιήσετε ἀπὸ πάντων τῶν βδελυγμάτων τούτων, ὁ ἐνχώριος ἢ ὁ προσγενόμενος προσήλυτος ἐν ὑμῖν·
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
Custodite legitima mea atque judicia, et non faciatis ex omnibus abominationibus istis, tam indigena quam colonus qui peregrinantur apud vos.
Por lo tanto, ustedes deben obedecer mis reglamentos y mis leyes, y no cometer ninguna de estas cosas asquerosas. Esto aplica tanto para los israelitas como para los extranjeros que viven entre ustedes.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Guardad, pues, vosotros mis estatutos y mis derechos, y no hagáis ninguna de todas estas abominaciones: ni el natural ni el extranjero que peregrina entre vosotros.
But you are to keep My statutes and ordinances, and you must not commit any of these abominations — neither your native-born nor the foreigner who lives among you.
✦ What the text says
Summary
Leviticus 18:26 commands the addressees to keep the chuqqot ("statutes", H2708) and mishpatim ("judgments", H4941G) of the speaker, and prohibits committing any of the previously listed to'evot ("abominations", H8441). The prohibition explicitly applies both to the ezrach ("native-born", H0249) and to the ger ("sojourner", H1616) who resides among the community.
Key words
- she.mar.Tem ("you will keep", H8104G) — qal sequential perfect, 2nd person masculine plural, continuing the narrative chain of commands begun in prior verses.
- 'a.Tem ("you", H0859D) — independent personal pronoun added for emphasis alongside the already-marked verbal subject, stressing the addressees as a distinct group.
- to.'e.Vot ("abominations", H8441) — feminine plural noun, referring back to the acts enumerated earlier in the chapter, here summarized as a category.
- 'ez.Rach ("native-born", H0249) — masculine singular noun designating one class of persons bound by the rule.
- Gar ("sojourns", H1481A) — qal participle, masculine singular, describing the ger through an ongoing action ("the one who sojourns"), rather than as a fixed status noun alone.
What the text says
The verse opens with a narrative vav (H9001) attached to she.mar.Tem, marking continuity with the surrounding legal instructions. The verb is doubled in emphasis: the finite verb form already encodes "you (pl.) shall keep," and the independent pronoun 'a.Tem is added redundantly, a common Hebrew construction that places rhetorical weight on the subject — here contrasting the addressees' expected conduct with the abominations just described. Two objects are joined by vav: chuqqotai ("my statutes") and mishpatai ("my judgments"), both construct-state plural nouns bearing the first-person suffix -ai (H9020), indicating possession by the speaker.
The second clause, introduced by lo' ("not", H3808) plus the imperfect ta'asu ("you will do", H6213A), forms a prohibition with ongoing or repeated force, governing "any of" (mi-kol, H9006 + H3605) "these abominations" (ha-to'evot ha-'elleh). The final clause names the scope of application without a copular verb: ha-ezrach ve-ha-ger ha-gar be-tokh-khem — "the native-born and the sojourner who sojourns in your midst." The word ger is reinforced by the participle gar from the same root (H1481A), producing a construction where the noun and its defining participle share the root, emphasizing the sojourner's ongoing residence rather than a permanent legal category.
Differences between versions
The LXX renders chuqqotai and mishpatai as πάντα τὰ νόμιμά μου and πάντα τὰ προστάγματά μου, adding "all" (πάντα) where the Hebrew construct nouns do not contain an explicit quantifier. The Vulgate uses legitima mea atque judicia, close to the Hebrew sense without the added "all." For ha-ger ha-gar, the LXX has ὁ προσγενόμενος προσήλυτος ("the sojourner who has come to be with"), while the Vulgate reads colonus qui peregrinantur, both expanding the participial phrase somewhat differently from the repeated-root construction in the Hebrew.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.