Leviticus 20:3

Summary

The verse states that God will set his face against a man who has given his offspring to Molech, and will cut that man off from among his people. The reason given is that this act defiles the divine sanctuary and profanes the divine holy name.

Key words

• panai ("my face", H6440) — masculine plural noun in construct with a 1st person suffix; the plural form of "face" combined with the verb 'etten ("I will set", H5414) forms the idiomatic expression of divine opposition directed at a person.
• hikhratti ("I will cut off", H3772) — hiphil (causative) perfect with 1st person subject, functioning as a sequential/consecutive perfect that continues the narrative action begun by 'etten; it expresses a future action grammatically anchored to the preceding verb.
• zar'o ("his offspring", H2233) — masculine singular noun in construct with a 3rd person suffix, preceded by the partitive preposition mi- ("one of"), indicating that only some of his offspring, not necessarily all, is in view.
• tamme' ("to make unclean", H2930) — piel (intensive) infinitive, expressing purpose or result together with le-ma'an ("so that", H4616), linking the man's act to its consequence for the sanctuary.
• challel ("to profane", H2490) — piel infinitive, parallel in form to tamme', joined by the conjunction u- ("and", H9002), forming a doubled expression of defilement affecting both the miqdashi ("my sanctuary", H4720) and the shem qodshi ("name of my holiness", H8034 + H6944).

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence opens with the independent pronoun 'ani ("I", H0589) before the verb 'etten ("I will set", H5414), placing grammatical emphasis on the subject before the action of "setting the face." This is followed by the sequential perfect hikhratti ("I will cut off", H3772), which continues the same future-oriented action chain via the narrative vav (H9001). The reason clause is introduced by ki ("for/that", H3588), followed by a partitive construction mi-zar'o ("one of his offspring", H2233) plus natan ("he has given", H5414) — a qal perfect describing a completed act prior to the punishment described.

The final clause uses le-ma'an ("so that", H4616) to introduce two parallel piel infinitives, tamme' ("to make unclean", H2930) and challel ("to profane", H2490), each governing its own direct object: miqdashi ("my sanctuary", H4720) and shem qodshi ("name of my holiness", H6944 construct chain with H8034). The double infinitive construction presents defilement of the sanctuary and profanation of the name as two linked results of the same act.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders la-Molekh ("to Molech", H4432) as archonti ("to a ruler"), differing from the Hebrew proper name Molekh; the Vulgate retains "Moloch" as in the Hebrew. The LXX also renders miqdashi ("my sanctuary") as ta hagia mou ("my holy things," plural) and shem qodshi ("name of my holiness") as to onoma tōn hēgiasmenōn moi ("the name of the things sanctified to me"), phrasings that diverge structurally from the Hebrew construct chains built on shem ("name", H8034) and qodesh ("holiness", H6944).