Leviticus 22:11
וְכֹהֵן כִּֽי־יִקְנֶה נֶפֶשׁ קִנְיַן כַּסְפּוֹ הוּא יֹאכַל בּוֹ וִילִיד בֵּיתוֹ הֵם יֹאכְלוּ בְלַחְמֽוֹ׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
וְכֹהֵ֗ן כִּֽי־יִקְנֶ֥ה נֶ֙פֶשׁ֙ קִנְיַ֣ן כַּסְפּ֔וֹ ה֖וּא יֹ֣אכַל בּ֑וֹ וִילִ֣יד בֵּית֔וֹ הֵ֖ם יֹאכְל֥וּ בְלַחְמֽוֹ׃
ἐὰν δὲ ἱερεὺς κτήσηται ψυχὴν ἔνκτητον ἀργυρίου, οὗτος φάγεται ἐκ τῶν ἄρτων αὐτοῦ· καὶ οἰκογενεῖς αὐτοῦ, καὶ οὗτοι φάγονται τῶν ἄρτων αὐτοῦ.
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
Quem autem sacerdos emerit, et qui vernaculus domus ejus fuerit, his comedent ex eis.
Pero si un sacerdote compra a un esclavo con su propio dinero, este sí podrá comer de la ofrenda. También los esclavos nacidos en su casa podrán comer de su alimento.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Mas el sacerdote, cuando comprare persona de su dinero, ésta comerá de ella, y el nacido en su casa: éstos comerán de su pan.
But if a priest buys a slave with his own money, or if a slave is born in his household, that slave may eat his food.
✦ What the text says
Summary
The verse establishes that when a priest acquires a person through purchase with his own money, that acquired person may eat from the priest's sacred food. The same right extends to a person born within the priest's household.
Key words
- kho.Hen ("a priest", H3548) — subject of the conditional clause, the one who acquires.
- yik.Neh ("he will acquire", H7069) — qal imperfect, denoting a future or hypothetical act of acquisition (buying).
- ne.fesh ("a person", H5315J) — feminine singular noun, the direct object being acquired, literally "a life/soul" used here for a human individual.
- kin.Yan... kas.P-o ("acquisition of... his money", H7075, H3701G) — construct chain meaning "the purchase of his silver/money," specifying the means of acquisition.
- Lid... bei.T-o ("one born of... his household", H3211, H1004M) — construct chain meaning "one born into his house," designating a second category of household member.
What the text says
The verse opens with ve-kho.Hen ki- ("and a priest, if..."), a conditional structure (ki, H3588A) that introduces the scenario. The verb yik.Neh ("he will acquire", H7069) is qal imperfect, marking this as a hypothetical or recurring future situation rather than a single completed event. Its object is ne.fesh ("a person", H5315J), followed by the construct phrase kin.Yan kas.po ("acquisition of his money", H7075 + H3701G), which clarifies that the acquisition happens through monetary payment.
The clause then shifts to an emphatic construction: hu' yo.khal bo ("he — he will eat in it"). The independent pronoun hu' (H1931) precedes the verb Yo.khal ("he will eat", H0398), a qal imperfect, giving prominence to the acquired person as the one entitled to eat, before naming what is eaten via the preposition be- ("in", H9003) with a pronominal suffix referring back to the food.
A parallel clause follows for a second category: vi-Lid bei.to ("and one born of his household", H3211 + H1004M), another construct chain. This group's entitlement is expressed with the plural pronoun hem ("they", H1992) and the plural verb yo.khe.Lu ("they will eat", H0398), followed by be-lach.mo ("in his food/bread", H3899G with suffix). The repetition of the eating verb (H0398) for both the purchased person and the household-born person marks each group separately but grants them the same privilege.
Differences between versions
The Hebrew ne.fesh ("a person", H5315J) is rendered by the LXX as ψυχὴν ἔνκτητον ("an acquired soul") and by the Vulgate simply as quem ("whom"), both consistent with the Hebrew sense of a human being acquired by purchase. The Vulgate compresses the two Hebrew clauses (purchased person / household-born person) into a single sentence with a shared verb comedent ("they shall eat"), whereas the Hebrew and LXX maintain two distinct clauses with separate eating verbs (yo.khal / yo.khe.lu in Hebrew; φάγεται / φάγονται in the LXX).
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.