Leviticus 22:29

Summary

The verse instructs that when a thanksgiving sacrifice is offered to Yehovah, it must be sacrificed in a manner that secures acceptance on behalf of those offering it. The Hebrew frames this as a conditional statement followed by a repeated verb of sacrificing, emphasizing the manner of the act.

Key words

• tiz.be.Chu ("you will sacrifice", H2076) — qal imperfect, 2nd person masculine plural, opening the conditional clause ("if you sacrifice").
• ze.vach ("sacrifice of", H2077) — masculine singular construct noun, linked to to.Dah to form the construct phrase "sacrifice of thanksgiving."
• to.Dah ("thanksgiving", H8426) — feminine singular noun, specifying the type of sacrifice.
• r.tzo.ne.Khem ("your acceptance", H7522 + H9026) — masculine singular construct noun with 2nd person masculine plural suffix, expressing the goal or condition ("for your acceptance").
• tiz.Ba.chu ("you will sacrifice [it]", H2076) — qal imperfect, 2nd person masculine plural, repeating the same verb root as word 3, closing the sentence.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence begins with the conditional particle khi ("if", H3588A) attached to ve ("and", H9002), introducing a protasis: "and if you sacrifice a sacrifice of thanksgiving to Yehovah." The construct chain ze.vach-to.Dah ("sacrifice of thanksgiving") identifies the specific offering type without an intervening preposition, typical of Hebrew construct relationships.

The apodosis repeats the same verbal root zbach (H2076) in tiz.Ba.chu, forming an inclusio with the opening verb tiz.be.Chu. This repetition — sacrifice... for your acceptance... you shall sacrifice — places the phrase li-r.tzo.ne.Khem ("for your acceptance", H7522 with H9026 suffix) at the center of the sentence, syntactically framed by the two identical imperfect verb forms. The construct noun r.tzo.ne.Khem indicates the purpose or result condition attached to the act of sacrificing, rather than describing the sacrifice's timing or location.

This bracketing structure — verb, offering type, divine recipient, purpose clause, verb again — is a feature of the Hebrew that does not carry over directly into English or Spanish translations, which tend to compress the repeated verb into a single clause with an added connector ("offer it so that..." or "háganlo de la manera correcta para que...").

Differences between versions

The LXX renders to.Dah ("thanksgiving", H8426) as εὐχὴν χαρμοσύνης ("vow of joy"), differing from the Hebrew's single noun for "thanksgiving." The Vulgate's "pro gratiarum actione" ("for the giving of thanks") aligns more closely with the Hebrew sense. Where the Hebrew repeats the verb zbach twice framing r.tzo.ne.Khem ("your acceptance"), the LXX and Vulgate each use a single main verb with a subordinate purpose clause (εἰσδεκτὸν... θύσετε; "ut possit esse placabilis"), collapsing the Hebrew's bracketed structure into one clause.