Leviticus 21:20

Summary

Leviticus 21:20 continues a list of physical conditions that disqualify a descendant of Aaron from approaching to offer sacrifices. The verse enumerates further bodily defects: a hunched back, thinness, an eye defect, skin conditions, and a crushed testicle, each introduced by the disjunctive particle "or."

Key words

• gibben ("a [man] hunchbacked", H1384) — masculine singular adjective describing a curved or humped physical form.
• daq ("a [man] thin", H1851) — masculine singular adjective; its base meaning is "thin" or "reduced in substance," used here of a bodily condition.
• tevallul ("a defect", H8400) — masculine singular noun denoting an abnormality located be'eino ("in his eye", H5869H + H9023, feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix), literally "a defect in the eye of him."
• garav ("eczema", H1618) and yalefet ("scabs", H3217) — masculine and feminine singular nouns naming distinct skin ailments, joined by the same repeated conjunction.
• meroach ashekh ("crushed of testicle", H4790 construct + H0810) — a construct phrase, literally "crushed [one] of testicle," describing damage to that organ.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence has no main verb; it is a chain of nominal and adjectival items linked exclusively by the repeated conjunction 'ov ("or", H0176A), which appears eight times across this verse. This repetitive disjunctive structure creates a list format rather than a narrative sentence, each term standing as an independent condition. The construct phrases — be'eino ("in his eye") and meroach ashekh ("crushed of testicle") — attach the defect directly to the body part affected, a common Hebrew way of specifying location or affected organ without a separate preposition or possessive construction beyond the construct state itself.

The adjective daq ("thin", H1851) is grammatically parallel to gibben ("hunchbacked", H1384), both functioning as masculine singular descriptors of a man's bodily form, suggesting the list groups skeletal/structural conditions before moving to eye and skin conditions, and finally to the reproductive organ.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew daq ("thin", H1851) is rendered by the LXX as ἔφηλος (a term for a skin/eye blemish, sometimes translated "freckled" or "flecked"), while the Vulgate gives lippus ("blear-eyed" or "eye-diseased"), and English versions vary between "dwarf" (BSB) and "lagañoso" (RV1909, "blear-eyed"). This shows a divergence in how "thinness" was understood or translated across textual traditions — some construing it as an eye condition, others as a bodily/structural trait. Additionally, the Hebrew's separate tevallul be'eino ("defect in his eye") is rendered by the LXX as πτίλος τοὺς ὀφθαλμούς, keeping the eye reference distinct, while the Vulgate's albuginem habens in oculo ("having a white film in the eye") specifies a particular type of eye defect not explicit in the Hebrew noun tevallul ("a defect", H8400) alone.