Leviticus 22:15

Summary

The verse states that "they" (an unspecified third-person plural subject, contextually the priests from the surrounding verses) must not profane the qodshei ("holy things") belonging to the benei Yisrael ("sons/people of Israel") — specifically those things which the Israelites yarimu ("lift up," i.e., set apart) for Yehovah (H3068G).

Key words

• yechalelu ("they will profane", H2490H) — piel imperfect, third person masculine plural. The piel stem intensifies the action of chalal (to treat as common/profane), and the imperfect marks it as an ongoing prohibition rather than a single past event.
• qodshei ("holy things of", H6944G) — masculine plural construct. The construct form links it directly to benei Yisrael, meaning these are holy things belonging to or originating from the Israelite community, not holiness in the abstract.
• benei Yisrael ("sons/people of Israel", H1121G + H3478) — construct chain identifying the human source of the offerings.
• yarimu ("they will lift up", H7311A) — hiphil imperfect, third person masculine plural. The hiphil (causative) stem conveys the act of raising or setting something apart as an offering, distinct from a simple physical lifting.
• la-Yehovah ("to Yehovah", H9005 + H3068G) — preposition plus divine name, marking the recipient/destination of the lifted offerings.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built around two verbs sharing the same unstated plural subject: yechalelu ("they will profane") and, in the relative clause, yarimu ("they will lift up"). Neither verb has an explicit noun subject in this verse; the identity of "they" who must not profane depends on the surrounding context (the priestly regulations of the chapter), and "they" who lift up the offerings are the benei Yisrael, the general Israelite population. The two direct-object markers ('et, H0853) show that qodshei benei Yisrael is the object of yechalelu, while 'asher yarimu is a relative clause further defining what these holy things are — namely, what the Israelites raise up for Yehovah. The construct chain qodshei benei Yisrael ties the holiness of the objects specifically to their origin among the Israelite people, rather than describing holiness as an inherent quality independent of ownership.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew verse itself does not name "the priests" as the subject of yechalelu; this subject is supplied by translations such as BSB ("The priests must not profane") and SBLIBRE ("Los sacerdotes no deben profanar"), drawing on context from earlier verses in the chapter. The LXX (βεβηλώσουσιν, "they will profane") and Vulgate (contaminabunt, "they will contaminate") likewise leave the subject unspecified, matching the Hebrew's ambiguity. Additionally, yarimu ("lift up") is rendered by LXX as ἀφαιροῦσιν ("they take away/set aside") and by BSB/SBLIBRE as "present/offer," each capturing a different nuance of the causative "raising" action described in the Hebrew.