Leviticus 22:18

Summary

Yehovah instructs Moses to speak to Aaron, his sons, and all the Israelites, laying out a rule that applies equally to any native Israelite or resident foreigner who presents an offering to Yehovah — whether fulfilling a vow or bringing a freewill offering — specifically when that offering is a burnt offering.

Key words

• da.Ber ("speak", H1696) — piel imperative; an intensive command form opening the speech-act, addressed to Moses (unstated but implied by context).
• 'ish 'ish ("a person, a person", H0376) — masculine singular noun repeated twice in sequence; this doubling functions distributively, meaning "any person / whoever," covering every individual case rather than one specific person.
• ha.Ger ("the sojourner", H1616) — masculine singular noun with definite article, introduced by min- ("of/from", H4480), placing the resident non-Israelite in parallel with "the house of Israel" as a second category covered by the law.
• yak.Riv ("he will present", H7126) — hiphil (causative) imperfect; the causative stem indicates the subject actively brings something forward/near, and the imperfect aspect marks a general, repeatable future condition ("whoever presents...").
• nid.rei.hem ("their vows", H5088) and nid.vo.Tam ("their freewill offerings", H5071) — both plural construct nouns with third-person plural suffixes, distinguishing two motivations for offerings: obligatory vows versus voluntary gifts.

What the text says

The verse opens with two verbs of speech: da.Ber ("speak", H1696), a piel imperative directed at an initial audience (Aaron, his sons, and Israel), followed by 'a.mar.Ta ("you will say", H0559), a qal sequential perfect that continues the instruction as a second, more specific address ("and you shall say to them"). This double-verb structure sets up a formal legal pronouncement: first a general command to speak, then the actual content to be relayed.

The subject of the law is marked by the doubled noun 'ish 'ish (H0376), a Hebrew idiom expressing distributive universality — "any person whatsoever" — rather than a single individual. This subject is then split into two groups joined by u- ("and", H9002): anyone mi-Beit Yisra'el ("from the house of Israel", H1004) and anyone min-ha-Ger be-Yisra'el ("of the sojourner in Israel", H1616), both governed by the relative particle 'a.Sher ("who", H0834) and the hiphil imperfect verb yak.Riv ("he will present", H7126). The causative stem of yak.Riv frames the offerer as one who actively brings the offering near, and its repetition later in the verse (yak.Ri.vu, "they will present", plural) shifts to describe the collective act of presenting to Yehovah (H3068). The two nouns nid.rei.hem ("their vows", H5088) and nid.vo.Tam ("their freewill offerings", H5071) are grammatically parallel construct plurals, distinguishing offerings made to fulfill a prior vow from those given voluntarily, both culminating in 'o.Lah ("a burnt offering", H5930).

Differences between versions

The LXX begins abruptly with "Λάλησον...τοῖς υἱοῖς αὐτοῦ" ("Speak...to his sons"), omitting an explicit rendering of "Aaron" at the start of the extant Swete text, and translates kol-be.Nei Yisra'El ("all the sons of Israel", H1121) as "πάσῃ συναγωγῇ Ἰσραὴλ" ("all the congregation of Israel"), using "congregation" rather than a literal "sons." The LXX also renders ha.Ger ("the sojourner", H1616) more elaborately as "τῶν υἱῶν τῶν λυτῶν τῶν προσκειμένων πρὸς αὐτοὺς" ("the sons of the ransomed/redeemed ones joined to them"), a fuller descriptive phrase not matching the single Hebrew noun. The Vulgate's "advenis qui habitant apud vos" ("strangers who dwell among you") similarly expands ha.Ger into a descriptive clause. Where the Hebrew and Vulgate address the offering generally before specifying "burnt offering" at the end, the LXX places "εἰς ὁλοκαύτωμα" ("for a burnt offering") in the same final position, but names the recipient as "τῷ θεῷ" ("to God") rather than transliterating the divine name as the Hebrew's la-Yehovah (H3068) does.