Leviticus 22:33

Summary

The verse identifies Yehovah as the one who brought the people out of Egypt with the specific purpose of becoming their God, closing with a self-identification formula. It functions as a divine self-declaration linking the exodus event to the God-Israel relationship.

Key words

• ha.Motzi' ("the one bringing out", H3318H) — Hiphil participle with definite article; the causative stem marks Yehovah as the active agent who causes the exodus, not merely one who leaves; the participle form treats this as an ongoing or defining characteristic/title.
• me'Eretz ("from the land of", H0776G) — feminine singular construct noun, grammatically bound to mitzRayim, forming the fixed phrase "from the land of Egypt."
• lihYot ("to become", H1961) — Qal infinitive with prefixed preposition li ("to/for"), expressing purpose: the infinitive construction indicates the goal or result of the "bringing out" action.
• laKhem ("for you", H9036+H9005) — preposition + 2nd person masculine plural suffix, marking the beneficiary of the "becoming."
• ' eloHim ("God", H0430G) — masculine plural noun (plural of majesty, common for the divine referent), here functioning as predicate after liheyot le- ("to become as/for").
• 'aNi Yehovah ("I [am] Yehovah", H0589 + H3068G) — independent pronoun followed by the divine name, forming a self-identification formula without a copula verb (verbless clause), typical of concluding statements in this chapter.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built around a participial title: ha.Motzi' ("the one bringing out") functions almost as a name or epithet for the speaker, syntactically modifying an implied subject continued from the preceding verses. This participle governs the object 'etKhem ("you," H0853+H9036) and the source phrase me'Eretz Mitzrayim ("from the land of Egypt"). The purpose clause lihYot laKhem le'eloHim ("to become for you as God") uses a chain of prefixed prepositions (li-, la-, le-) attached to the infinitive and noun, a construction that expresses intended outcome rather than simple result — the exodus is presented grammatically as oriented toward this relational goal.

The final clause, 'aNi Yehovah ("I [am] Yehovah"), lacks a linking verb, as is standard in Hebrew nominal clauses; the identity is asserted purely through juxtaposition of the pronoun and the divine name. This terse verbless formula gives the statement a declarative, formulaic weight distinct from the flowing syntax of the participial clause before it.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the divine name Yehovah (H3068G) as kyrios ("Lord"), consistent with its general practice of substituting the tetragrammaton with a title rather than transliterating it. The Vulgate similarly uses Dominus ("Lord") for the same reason, and translates the purpose infinitive lihYot with a subjunctive ut essem ("that I might be"), shifting the grammatical mood from the Hebrew infinitive construction to a Latin finite clause. The plural noun 'eloHim ("God") is rendered as a singular predicate (Deus, theos) in both the LXX and Vulgate, matching the grammatical number of the referent as understood rather than the plural morphology visible in the Hebrew.