Leviticus 22:14

Summary

The verse addresses a case where a person eats a qodesh ("holy thing", H6944G) without intending wrongdoing. The remedy specified is that the person must add one-fifth to its value and give the holy thing itself to the priest.

Key words

• 'ish ("anyone", H0376I) — a generic masculine singular noun, functioning here as "a man" / "anyone," introducing the conditional case without specifying identity.
• yokhal ("he will eat", H0398) — Qal imperfect, marking an action viewed as ongoing or future possibility, fitting the conditional "if" clause introduced by ki ("if", H3588A).
• bishgagah ("by inadvertence", H7684) — a feminine singular noun preceded by the preposition bi ("by", H9003), specifying that the eating occurs unintentionally, in error, rather than deliberately.
• yasaf ("he will add", H3254H) — Qal sequential perfect, continuing the narrative sequence begun by the imperfect verb; grammatically it picks up the "if" scenario and states the consequence that follows.
• natan ("he will give", H5414G) — another Qal sequential perfect, forming the second half of the required action after the addition of the fifth.

What the text says

The sentence is built as a conditional structure introduced by 'ish ki ("anyone if", H0376I + H3588A), a common legal formula in this text that sets up a hypothetical case. The verb yokhal ("he will eat", H0398) is in the imperfect, appropriate for describing the hypothetical action within the "if" clause. The qualifier bishgagah ("by inadvertence", H7684) is essential to the case: the action described is not deliberate consumption of a qodesh ("holy thing", H6944G) but an unintentional one.

The consequence is expressed through two sequential perfect verbs, yasaf ("he will add", H3254H) and natan ("he will give", H5414G), which continue the logical sequence set up by the initial conditional imperfect. This verb chain (imperfect followed by sequential perfects) is a standard Hebrew mechanism for expressing "if X happens, then Y and Z must follow." The object chamishito ("its fifth", H2549) with the pronominal suffix "its" refers back to the value of the qodesh, and this fifth is added 'alav ("to it", H5921A), meaning added to the value/item itself. Finally, the direct object marker 'et (H0853) marks ha-qodesh ("the holy thing", H6944G) as the direct object of natan ("he will give", H5414G), specifying that the holy thing itself (not merely its value) is handed over to the priest.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders bishgagah ("by inadvertence", H7684) as κατὰ ἄγνοιαν ("according to ignorance"), a close conceptual match. The Vulgate uses "per ignorantiam" ("through ignorance"), similarly aligned. The SBLIBRE (Spanish) rendering interprets the payment as a "multa" ("fine"), a interpretive addition not present as a distinct lexical item in the Hebrew, LXX, or Vulgate texts, which simply describe adding a fifth and giving the holy thing/its value to the priest.