Leviticus 21:9
וּבַת אִישׁ כֹּהֵן כִּי תֵחֵל לִזְנוֹת אֶת־אָבִיהָ הִיא מְחַלֶּלֶת בָּאֵשׁ תִּשָּׂרֵֽף׃ ס
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
וּבַת֙ אִ֣ישׁ כֹּהֵ֔ן כִּ֥י תֵחֵ֖ל לִזְנ֑וֹת אֶת־אָבִ֙יהָ֙ הִ֣יא מְחַלֶּ֔לֶת בָּאֵ֖שׁ תִּשָּׂרֵֽף׃ ס
καὶ θυγάτηρ ἀνθρώπου ἱερέως ἐὰν βεβηλωθῇ τοῦ ἐκπορνεῦσαι, τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ πατμὸς αὐτῆς αὐτὴ βεβηλοῖ·
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
Sacerdotis filia si deprehensa fuerit in stupro, et violaverit nomen patris sui, flammis exuretur.
“‘Si la hija de un sacerdote se deshonra volviéndose prostituta, deshonra a su padre; deberá ser quemada en el fuego.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Y la hija del varón sacerdote, si comenzare á fornicar, á su padre amancilla: quemada será al fuego.
If a priest ’s daughter defiles herself by prostituting herself, she profanes her father; she must be burned in the fire.
✦ What the text says
Summary
The verse addresses the daughter of a priest who profanes herself through prostitution. The Hebrew states that by this act she profanes her father directly, and the penalty specified is death by burning.
Key words
- techel ("she will profane herself", H2490H) — Hiphil imperfect, causative stem: she brings about her own profanation, not merely experiences it passively.
- liznot ("acting as a prostitute", H2181) — Qal infinitive construct, describing the specific manner or means by which the profaning occurs ("by prostituting").
- mechallelet ("profaning", H2490H) — Piel participle, feminine singular: this is the same root as techel, but here in the participle form describing an ongoing state of profaning, rather than an event.
- aviha ("her father", H0001G) — construct form with pronominal suffix, marked by the direct object particle 'et (H0853), making the father the direct grammatical object of "profaning."
- tissaref ("she will be burned", H8313) — Niphal imperfect, passive/reflexive stem: the subject undergoes the action rather than performing it.
What the text says
The Hebrew sentence is built around a double occurrence of the root chalal ("to profane"), first as a Hiphil verb (techel, "she profanes herself") and then as a Piel participle (mechallelet, "profaning"). This repetition creates a grammatical echo: the woman's self-profaning act (Hiphil) results in an ongoing profaning of another party (Piel participle), specifically her father, marked by the direct object particle 'et before aviha ("her father", H0001G). The direct object here is the father himself, not an abstract quality attached to him.
The infinitive liznot ("acting as a prostitute", H2181) functions adverbially, specifying the means by which the profaning in techel takes place — the self-profanation happens through this behavior. The final clause shifts to the Niphal stem in tissaref ("she will be burned", H8313), placing the subject in a passive role distinct from the active/causative verbs used earlier in the verse.
Differences between versions
The Hebrew direct object is "her father" ('et-aviha) — the person himself is profaned. The LXX renders this as τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ πατρὸς αὐτῆς ("the name of her father"), inserting "name" (ὄνομα) as the object rather than the father directly. The Vulgate follows this same pattern with "nomen patris sui" ("the name of her father"), matching the LXX's addition rather than the Hebrew's direct construction. The BSB and SBLIBRE translations follow the Hebrew structure, stating she profanes "her father" without inserting "name."
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.