Leviticus 19:34

Summary

The verse instructs that the ger ("sojourner", H1616) who resides among the addressees is to be treated like the 'ezrach ("native-born", H0249), and commands loving him as oneself. The rationale given is that the addressees themselves were gerim ("sojourners", H1616) in the land of Egypt, closing with the self-identification formula "I am Yehovah your God."

Key words

• 'ezrach ("native-born", H0249) — masculine singular noun, used with the comparative preposition ke ("like", H9004) to establish the standard of treatment.
• ger ("sojourner", H1616) — masculine singular noun with definite article ha (H9009), the subject of the clause who "will be" (yihyeh, H1961) treated like the native-born.
• gar ("sojourns", H1481A) — qal participle, masculine singular, functioning adjectivally with the article to mean "the one who sojourns"; participles in Hebrew denote ongoing state/action, here describing continuous residence "with you" ('ittekhem, H0854 + suffix).
• 'ahavta ("you will love", H0157G) — qal sequential perfect, second masculine singular; the sequential perfect after the preceding imperfect (yihyeh) continues the instruction as a chain of connected actions.
• heyitem ("you were", H1961) — qal perfect, second masculine plural, marking completed past action, contrasted with the participle gar describing present ongoing sojourning of the other.

What the text says

The sentence opens with the comparative phrase ke-'ezrach mikkem ("like a native-born from among you"), placing the standard of comparison before the subject it modifies. The subject, ha-ger ha-gar 'ittekhem ("the sojourner who sojourns with you"), uses the noun ger followed by the article plus the participle gar from the same root — a construction that repeats the root to emphasize the sojourner's ongoing residence status ("the sojourning one who is sojourning with you"). The verb yihyeh ("he will be", H1961) is qal imperfect, indicating an instruction with future/ongoing force: the status of the ger is to be like that of the 'ezrach.

The clause continues with ve-'ahavta lo kamokha ("and you will love him like yourself"), where 'ahavta is a sequential (waw-consecutive) perfect continuing the force of the preceding imperfect verb — a common Hebrew mechanism for chaining commands. The comparative kamokha ("like yourself", H3644G + suffix) parallels the earlier ke-'ezrach, creating a structural echo between the two comparisons in the verse.

The causal clause ki gerim heyitem be'eretz Mitzrayim ("for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt") uses heyitem, a qal perfect (completed action), contrasting grammatically with the participle gar used earlier for the present sojourner — the addressees' sojourning is presented as a finished past state, while the other's sojourning is presented as ongoing.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders ger (H1616) as prosēlytos ("proselyte/convert"), a term with different semantic range than the Hebrew ger ("sojourner/resident alien"). The Vulgate uses advena ("stranger/newcomer") for the same term, closer to "sojourner" than the LXX's prosēlytos. The Hebrew repeats the root ger/gar twice in the phrase "the sojourner who sojourns," a repetition not preserved distinctly in the LXX (ho prosēlytos ho prosporeuomenos, "the proselyte who comes toward") or the Vulgate, which uses a single term indigena for "native-born" comparison without repeating the sojourner root.