Leviticus 18:30

Summary

The verse closes chapter 18 with a command to keep a specific charge, understood as avoiding the customary practices labeled "abominations" that were carried out before the addressees, so that they not become defiled through them. It ends with a self-identification formula naming Yehovah as the God of the addressees.

Key words

• mishmarT ("duty", H4931) — feminine singular construct noun with 1st person suffix ("my duty/charge"), the direct object of the preceding verb, framing what is to be kept as something belonging specifically to the speaker.
• vilTi ("not", H1115) + 'aSot ("to do", H6213A) — a construction of a negative particle governing an infinitive, expressing purpose or result: "so as not to do."
• chuKot ("customs of", H2708) — feminine plural construct noun, "statutes/customs of," linked to to'eVot ("abominations", H8441) in a construct chain: "customs of the abominations."
• na'aSu ("they have been done", H6213A) — niphal (passive) perfect of the same root as 'aSot, indicating that these customs "were done" by others, completed prior action, without naming an agent.
• titame'U ("you will make yourselves unclean", H2930A) — hithpael (reflexive) imperfect, portraying the defilement as something the addressees would bring upon themselves, ongoing or future in aspect.

What the text says

The verse opens with a sequential perfect verb, she.mar.Tem ("you will keep", H8104G), continuing the narrative chain from prior verses and marking this as the culminating instruction. Its object is mishmarT-i, "my duty," a construct form with a first-person suffix, so the charge is presented as belonging to the speaker rather than as a generic obligation. The purpose clause that follows uses the negative particle vilTi with the infinitive 'aSot, a common Biblical Hebrew way of expressing "in order not to do." What is not to be done is specified through a construct chain: chuKot ha-to'eVot, literally "customs of the abominations," meaning statutes belonging to the category of abominations, rather than two separate items.

The relative clause 'aSher na'aSu lifneiKhem uses the niphal (passive) perfect na'aSu, "they have been done," describing these customs as completed actions performed "before you" (lifneiKhem, from the construct noun fnei, "before/face of," H6440G, with a 2nd person plural suffix). The niphal form leaves the doer(s) unspecified, focusing on the practices themselves rather than naming an agent. The final clause shifts to the hithpael imperfect titame'U, "you will make yourselves unclean," a reflexive/middle form suggesting that defilement here is self-inflicted through participation in those customs, expressed with future or ongoing aspect. The verse closes with the formula 'ani Yehovah 'eloheiKhem, "I am Yehovah your God," using the construct plural 'elohei with a 2nd person plural suffix.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders mishmarT-i ("my duty") as τὰ προστάγματά μου ("my ordinances/commands"), a plural noun rather than the singular construct of the Hebrew. The Vulgate similarly uses "mandata mea" ("my commandments"), also plural, diverging from the Hebrew singular "my duty/charge." Both the LXX (τῶν ἐβδελυγμένων, "the things abominated") and the Vulgate ("quæ fecerunt hi qui fuerunt ante vos," "which those who were before you did") reformulate the Hebrew construct chain chuKot ha-to'eVot ("customs of the abominations") differently, with the Vulgate naming "those who were before you" explicitly as agents, where the Hebrew niphal na'aSu leaves the agent unstated.