Leviticus 22:23

Summary

The verse permits an ox or sheep with a limb that is sarua ("enlarged", H8311) or qalut ("stunted", H7038) to be offered as a nedavah ("freewill offering", H5071), but explicitly excludes such an animal from fulfilling a neder ("vow", H5088).

Key words

שָׂרוּעַ sarua ("having something enlarged", H8311) — qal passive participle, masculine singular, describing a physical anomaly in the animal, likely a limb disproportionately long.

קָלוּט qalut ("having something stunted", H7038) — qal passive participle, masculine singular, paired with sarua to form a merism covering both excess and deficiency in limb size.

נְדָבָה nedavah ("freewill offering", H5071) — feminine singular noun naming the category of offering for which the blemished animal remains valid.

תַּעֲשֶׂה ta'aseh ("you will offer/do", H6213I) — qal imperfect, second person masculine singular, expressing an action permitted or commanded going forward; here functions permissively ("you may offer").

יֵרָצֶה yeratzeh ("it will be accepted", H7521) — niphal imperfect, third person masculine singular; the niphal stem marks the verb as passive, so the animal itself is the one "accepted" or "not accepted," with no stated agent.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence sets up two clauses joined by disjunction. The first names the animals — shor ("ox", H7794) and seh ("sheep", H7716) — and attaches two participles, sarua and qalut, functioning adjectivally to describe the specific physical condition disqualifying the animal from full ritual standard. Both participles are qal passive forms, meaning the animal itself has undergone or possesses this altered state, not that someone has acted on it within this clause. The verb ta'aseh is imperfect, which in Biblical Hebrew commonly expresses future or modal (permissive/obligatory) nuance; combined with the direct object marker 'oto ("it", referring back to the ox/sheep), the clause reads as permission: such an animal may be presented as nedavah.

The second clause pivots with lo ("not", H3808) plus yeratzeh, a niphal imperfect. The niphal stem here removes the grammatical subject performing the acceptance — the text does not say who accepts or rejects, only that the animal "will not be accepted" le-neder ("for a vow", H5088). The grammatical structure thus creates a clear binary: the same blemished animal is valid for one category of offering (nedavah) and invalid for another (neder), without specifying why beyond the categorical distinction itself.

Differences between versions

The LXX specifies the defects as ὠτότμητον ("ear-cut") and κολοβόκερκον ("tail-docked"), rendering concrete body parts where the Hebrew sarua and qalut are more general participles indicating enlargement or stunting without naming a specific body part. The Vulgate follows a similar specificity, naming "aure et cauda amputatis" ("ear and tail cut off"), aligning more closely with the LXX's concrete reading than with the Hebrew's broader terminology.