Leviticus 20:6

Summary

Leviticus 20:6 addresses the nefesh ("person", H5315J) who turns toward necromancers and soothsayers. The verse states that God will set his face against that person and cut them off from among their people, using two sequential first-person verbs that describe divine action following the person's turning.

Key words

• Nefesh ("person", H5315J) — feminine singular noun, appearing twice (once with the article as subject, once again with the demonstrative hiv' "that", H1931, referring back to the same subject).
• Tifneh ("it will turn", H6437G) — qal imperfect, third feminine singular (agreeing with nefesh), expressing an action not yet completed or habitual, introduced by the relative asher ("who", H0834A).
• Liznot ("to act as a prostitute", H2181) — qal infinitive construct, expressing purpose or result of the turning described by tifneh, followed by acharehem ("after them", built on H0310A + suffix H9038).
• Natati ("I will set", H5414H) — qal sequential perfect (vav-consecutive), first person, continuing the narrative sequence begun by the imperfect tifneh; grammatically this construction often carries future force in legal/case formulations.
• Hikhrati ("I will cut off", H3772I) — hiphil (causative) sequential perfect, first person, parallel in form to natati, denoting a caused removal.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built as a casuistic (case) law: a subject clause introduced by ha-nefesh asher ("the person who...") describes a condition using the imperfect verb tifneh ("turns"), followed by a purpose infinitive liznot acharehem ("to prostitute after them")—linking the act of turning to necromancers (ha-ovot, H0178) and soothsayers (ha-yidde'onim, H3049) with the metaphorical language of sexual infidelity found elsewhere in the chapter's legal material. The consequence is introduced by two verbs in the sequential (vav-consecutive) perfect: ve-natati ("and I will set") and ve-hikhrati ("and I will cut off"), both first person, which grammatically continue the temporal/logical sequence set up by the initial imperfect verb — a common pattern in Hebrew legal casuistic style where protasis (condition) and apodosis (consequence) are joined by this verb-form shift.

The phrase natati et-panai ("I will set my face", H6440H construct + suffix) is idiomatic, using the construct plural panai ("my face/faces") governed by the object marker et (H0853). The final phrase mikkerev ammo ("from among his people") uses two nouns in construct chain (H7130G kerev and H5971A am), each bound to a following element ("among of" + "people of his").

Differences between versions

The LXX renders ha-ovot and ha-yidde'onim with the Greek terms for "belly-talkers" (ἐνγαστριμύθοις) and "enchanters" (ἐπαοιδοῖς), interpretive renderings of the Hebrew terms for necromancers and soothsayers. The Vulgate uses magos et ariolos ("magicians and diviners"), a similarly interpretive but distinct pairing. Where the Hebrew has two sequential first-person verbs (natati, hikhrati), the LXX uses future indicative forms (ἐπιστήσω, ἀπολῶ), and the Vulgate uses future forms (ponam, interficiam) — all versions preserve the first-person future/sequential sense, though the Vulgate's interficiam ("I will kill") diverges from the Hebrew hikhrati ("I will cut off", H3772I), which in other biblical contexts denotes exclusion or removal rather than killing specifically.