Leviticus 19:30

Summary

The verse commands the addressee (plural "you") to keep the speaker's sabbatot ("sabbaths") and to hold the speaker's miqdash ("sanctuary") in fear/reverence. It closes with the self-identifying formula "I am Yehovah."

Key words

• shabbetotai ("my sabbaths", H7676) — feminine plural noun in construct with the 1st-person suffix -i ("my", H9020), marked by the object particle 'et (H0853), showing the sabbaths belong specifically to the speaker.
• tishmoru ("you will keep", H8104) — qal imperfect, 2nd person masculine plural, expressing an ongoing or future obligation directed at a group.
• miqdashi ("my sanctuary", H4720) — masculine singular noun in construct with the same 1st-person suffix, paired syntactically with shabbetotai.
• tira'u ("you will fear", H3372) — qal imperfect, 2nd person masculine plural, parallel in form to tishmoru, applied to the sanctuary rather than the sabbaths.
• 'ani Yehovah ("I [am] Yehovah", H0589 + H3068) — independent pronoun plus the divine name, forming a closing self-declaration without a copular verb in the Hebrew.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built as two parallel clauses joined by the conjunction u- ("and", H9002): "'et-shabbetotai tishmoru" ("my sabbaths you will keep") and "u-miqdashi tira'u" ("and my sanctuary you will fear"). Each clause places the object first (shabbetotai, miqdashi) before its verb (tishmoru, tira'u), a common fronting pattern in Biblical Hebrew that gives prominence to the object of the action. Both verbs are qal imperfect, 2nd masculine plural, so grammatically the instruction is addressed collectively to a group of male addressees (or a mixed group under standard grammatical convention), and the imperfect aspect allows the instruction to be read as ongoing practice rather than a single act.

The verb tira'u (H3372) carries the semantic range of "fear" but in cultic contexts commonly denotes reverence or awe rather than terror; its pairing with tishmoru ("keep/observe") creates a rhetorical parallel between physical observance (sabbaths) and attitudinal respect (sanctuary). The closing formula 'ani Yehovah has no linking verb in Hebrew — "I" and "Yehovah" stand in apposition, a structure that translations render with an inserted "am."

Differences between versions

The Vulgate renders tira'u as metuite ("fear/dread"), closer to a literal sense of fear, while the BSB and RV1909 use "reverence," foregrounding the cultic-respect nuance also possible in the Hebrew yr' root. The LXX text supplied here extends beyond the Hebrew's two clauses, adding reference to ἐπαοιδοῖς ("enchanters") and a phrase about not being defiled — material not present in the Hebrew of this verse as given, suggesting the LXX text block provided includes content from beyond Leviticus 19:30.