Leviticus 20:13

Summary

Leviticus 20:13 describes a man who lies with a male "the lyings of a woman" (i.e., in the manner of intercourse with a woman) as having committed to'evah ("abomination", H8441), with both parties condemned to death, described in the closing formula as bringing bloodguilt upon themselves.

Key words

• yishkav ("he will lie with", H7901I) — qal imperfect, describing the act as an ongoing or repeated/future possibility rather than a single historical event.
• mishkevei ("lyings of", H4904) — masculine plural construct of "lying/bed," here forming the phrase "the lyings of a woman," specifying the manner of the act by comparison rather than naming the act directly.
• to'evah ("abomination", H8441) — feminine singular noun functioning as the predicate of what "they have done" ('asu, H6213H, qal perfect).
• mot yumatu ("certainly they will be put to death", H4191 + H4191) — infinitive absolute (mot) combined with a hophal imperfect (yumatu) of the same root, a construction that intensifies the verb, marking the penalty as emphatic/certain rather than merely stated.
• demeihem ("their bloods", H1818) — masculine plural construct with pronominal suffix; the plural form of "blood" here (as elsewhere in the chapter) closes the verse with the formula "their bloods are upon them" (bam, H9003+H9038).

What the text says

The sentence opens with ve'ish 'asher ("and a man who," H0376G + H0834A), a casuistic (case-law) structure typical of this chapter, followed by the qal imperfect yishkav ("he will lie with," H7901I) governing the direct object marker 'et (H0853) plus zakhar ("a male," H2145). The phrase that follows, mishkevei 'ishah ("the lyings of a woman," H4904+H0802G), uses a plural construct noun rather than a verb, so the manner of the act is expressed through a noun phrase in apposition rather than a second verb form.

The verdict is given in two parts. First, to'evah 'asu shneihem ("abomination they have done, both of them," H8441+H6213H+H8147+H9028) uses the qal perfect 'asu to state the act as completed, with shneihem ("both of them") explicitly marking that the judgment applies to both parties in the dual/pair construct form. Second, the penalty clause mot yumatu stacks an infinitive absolute of the root H4191 before its own hophal imperfect form, a grammatical intensification that Hebrew uses to underscore certainty or emphasis of the verb's action — here, the passive causative "will surely be put to death." The closing formula demeihem bam ("their bloods are upon them") uses the plural construct demei with the third-person plural suffix, followed by the preposition-article-suffix combination bam ("in/upon them").

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the "both of them" penalty clause as βδέλυγμα ἐπ' ἀμφότεροι ("abomination is upon both"), placing "abomination" as a predicate directly upon "both," whereas the Hebrew states "abomination they-did, both of them" with a perfect verb governing the pair. The LXX also renders the closing formula as ἔνοχοί εἰσιν ("they are guilty/liable") where the Hebrew has demeihem bam ("their bloods are upon them"), a divergence in the final clause's wording. The Vulgate's "sit sanguis eorum super eos" ("let their blood be upon them") follows the Hebrew formula more closely than the LXX's "guilty" phrasing. The Hebrew's infinitive-absolute intensification in mot yumatu is rendered in the LXX simply as θανατούσθωσαν ("let them be put to death"), without a parallel doubling construction.