Leviticus 20:16

Summary

Leviticus 20:16 addresses a woman who approaches an animal for sexual contact, prescribing death for both the woman and the animal, with a closing formula stating that their blood is upon them.

Key words

• tikrav ("she will draw near", H7126G) — qal imperfect, third person feminine, describing the woman's action as ongoing/future.
• riv'ah ("stretch out with", H7250) — qal infinitive construct, paired with the suffixed preposition otah ("with her", H0854+H9034), specifying the purpose of her approach.
• haragta ("you will kill", H2026) — qal sequential perfect, second person masculine singular; the verb shifts grammatical person from the third-person description of the woman to a direct second-person command.
• mot yumatu ("certainly...they will be put to death", H4191) — pairs a qal absolute infinitive with a hophal (causative-passive) imperfect, a construction that intensifies the verb it accompanies.
• demeihem ("their bloods", H1818) — masculine plural construct with third-person plural suffix, plural form of "blood."

What the text says

The verse opens in third person: isha ("a woman", H0802G) is the subject of tikrav, describing her drawing near to kol behemah ("any animal", H3605+H0929) for the purpose expressed by the infinitive riv'ah with its suffixed object otah ("her/it"). The grammatical subject then shifts abruptly: vehoragta is a second-person masculine singular sequential perfect, addressing an unspecified "you" who is commanded to kill both parties — ha'ishah ("the woman") and habehemah ("the animal"), each marked by the direct object particle et. This shift from third-person narration to second-person command is a feature of the Hebrew syntax not visible in translations that render the whole verse in a uniform grammatical voice.

The verse then returns to third person with mot yumatu, combining the absolute infinitive of mut ("to die", H4191) with its own hophal imperfect form — a doubling construction that intensifies the certainty of the action denoted by the finite verb. The closing phrase demeihem bam ("their bloods [are] on them") uses the plural construct demei ("bloods of") with the third-person plural suffix hem, followed by the preposition bam ("in/on them", H9003+H9038).

Differences between versions

The Hebrew infinitive riv'ah otah specifies the woman's action "with her" (i.e., with the animal, using a feminine suffix agreeing with behemah, "animal," grammatically feminine in Hebrew). The LXX renders this as βιβασθῆναι αὐτὴν ὑπ' αὐτοῦ ("to be mounted by it"), constructing the action as passive and attributing agency to the animal (ὑπ' αὐτοῦ, "by it/him"), which frames the interaction differently from the Hebrew's active infinitive construction. The LXX also uses a second-person plural verb ἀποκτενεῖτε ("you [pl.] will kill") where the Hebrew haragta is second-person singular. The Vulgate collapses the sequence into a single passive clause, simul interficietur cum eo ("she will be killed together with it"), omitting the imperative second-person address present in the Hebrew haragta.