Leviticus 19:33

Summary

The verse establishes a conditional case: if a ger ("sojourner", H1616) resides among the people in their land, they are instructed not to maltreat him. The sentence is structured as a legal/casuistic formula, opening with a conditional particle and closing with a prohibition using the negated imperfect.

Key words

• khi- ("if", H3588A) — a conditional/subordinating particle that introduces a hypothetical or recurring legal situation, typical of case law formulations in Leviticus.
• ya.Gur ("he will sojourn", H1481A) — qal imperfect, denoting an ongoing or future action of temporary residence; the subject is the ger introduced later in the clause.
• ger ("a sojourner", H1616) — masculine singular noun designating a non-native resident; it is the grammatical subject of ya.Gur and the antecedent of the object suffix in 'o.T-o.
• to.Nu ("you will maltreat", H3238) — hiphil (causative) imperfect, second person masculine plural, negated by lo' ("not", H3808); the causative stem frames the prohibited action as actively causing harm or oppression, not merely a passive state.
• 'ar.tze.-Khem ("your land", H0776G + H9026) — construct noun with plural possessive suffix, identifying the land as belonging collectively to the addressees, distinct from the ger who resides "with you" ('i.te.-Kha, H0854 + H9031, singular "you").

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence divides into two parts: a conditional clause (verses 3–9 in the word list) and a prohibition (verses 10–13). The conditional clause uses khi- plus the qal imperfect ya.Gur to describe the sojourner's residence as a recurring or hypothetical scenario — the ger "sojourns" (ya.Gur) "with you" (singular 'i.te.-Kha), while the land is referred to with the plural suffix 'ar.tze.-Khem ("your land," addressed to the collective). This shift from singular ("with you") to plural ("your land") reflects a movement from an individual relationship with the sojourner to a collective territorial context.

The prohibition itself, lo' to.Nu 'o.T-o, places the negation lo' before the hiphil imperfect to.Nu, giving a general and continuing command rather than a one-time instruction. The hiphil stem of to.Nu (root H3238) frames the forbidden action causatively — the verb describes actively causing distress or oppression, not simply experiencing or allowing it. The direct object marker 'o.T with the third-person suffix -o ("him") refers back grammatically to ger, tying the prohibition explicitly to the sojourner introduced in the conditional clause.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders ger ("sojourner", H1616) as prosēlytos ("proselyte"), a term with different connotations than the Hebrew ger, which denotes a resident alien rather than necessarily a religious convert. The Vulgate uses advena ("stranger/newcomer") and adds moratus fuerit inter vos ("has stayed among you"), an expansion not present as a separate clause in the Hebrew, which conveys this idea through the single verb ya.Gur. The Hebrew to.Nu ("maltreat", hiphil of H3238) is rendered by the LXX as thlipsete ("you will afflict/oppress") and by the Vulgate as exprobretis ("you shall reproach"), showing a divergence in nuance between physical/social oppression and verbal reproach.