Leviticus 22:25

Summary

The verse prohibits the Israelites from presenting an animal obtained mi-yad ben-nekhar ("from the hand of a foreigner", H3027K/H1121I/H5236) as lechem Eloheikhem ("the food of your God", H3899H/H0430G) if that animal has a defect. The reason given is that such animals carry mashchatam ("their disfigurement", H4893B) and mum ("a blemish", H3971B), and for that reason they lo yeratzu ("will not be accepted", H7521).

Key words

• tak.Ri.vu ("you must present", H7126H) — hiphil (causative) imperfect, 2nd person masculine plural: an ongoing/future prohibited action of "bringing near" an offering.
• ben-nekhar ("a son of foreignness", H1121I + H5236) — construct chain functioning as "foreigner"; literally "son of foreignness."
• lechem 'Elohei-khem ("the food of your God", H3899H + H0430G) — construct chain naming the offering as sustenance/food belonging to the deity.
• mashchatam ("their disfigurement", H4893B) — construct noun with 3rd person plural suffix, paired with bahem ("in them"), forming a nominal clause "their disfigurement is in them."
• yeratzu ("they will be accepted", H7521) — niphal (passive/reflexive) imperfect, 3rd masculine plural: the animals are the grammatical subject of the passive verb "to be accepted."

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence opens with the prepositional phrase u-mi-yad ben-nekhar ("and from the hand of a son of foreignness"), placed before the negated verb lo taqrivu, which fronts the source of the animal as the topic under restriction. The object is marked by 'et- (H0853, untranslated) before lechem 'Elohei-khem, followed by mi-kol-'elleh ("from any of these"), referring back to a preceding list of defective animals.

The causal clause beginning with ki ("for/because", H3588A) contains two short parallel nominal clauses: mashchatam bahem ("their disfigurement is in them") and mum bam ("a blemish is in them"). Both use a construct/possessive noun followed by a prepositional phrase with a 3rd masculine plural suffix (bahem/bam), a repetitive structure that Hebrew uses for emphasis rather than for adding new information. The final clause, lo yeratzu lakhem, uses the niphal verb yeratzu, making the animals themselves the subject of "will not be accepted," with lakhem ("for you", H9036) marking the beneficiary of the (failed) acceptance.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders lechem ("food") as τὰ δῶρα ("the gifts"), a different lexical choice from the Hebrew's "food" terminology. The Vulgate expands the text with et quidquid aliud dare voluerit ("and whatever else he might wish to give"), a clause not present in the Hebrew word list. The Vulgate also collapses the two parallel Hebrew nominal clauses (mashchatam bahem / mum bam) into two adjectives, corrupta et maculata, modifying "omnia," differing from the Hebrew's repeated construct-plus-preposition structure. The BSB's "Neither you nor a foreigner" reformulates the Hebrew's mi-yad ben-nekhar ("from the hand of a foreigner"), which in the word-by-word data describes the source of the animal rather than explicitly barring the foreigner from offering.