Leviticus 23:22

Summary

The verse instructs that when harvesting the crop of the land, the corner of the field should not be completely reaped, and the gleanings that fall during harvest should not be gathered. These are to be left for the poor person and the sojourner, closing with the self-identification formula "I am Yehovah your God."

Key words

• kutzrekhem (H7114B) — qal infinitive construct with 2nd m. pl. suffix, "in your harvesting"; the infinitive construct with the preposition ve (H9003, "when") frames the temporal setting for the whole instruction.
• tekhalleh (H3615J) — piel imperfect, "you will finish/complete"; the piel stem intensifies the basic sense of "ending," here negated to mean "you shall not completely finish/consume."
• pe'at (H6285) — construct noun, "edge/corner of," forming a construct chain with sadkha ("your field," H7704G), specifying the particular part of the field addressed.
• leket (H3951) — construct noun, "gleaning/remnant of," paired with ketzirkha ("your harvest," H7105A), naming the specific agricultural byproduct in question.
• telaqqet (H3950) — piel imperfect, "you will gather," negated; the piel form denotes the deliberate act of collecting or picking up, distinct from the general verb "to harvest" (qatzar).

What the text says

The verse is built on two parallel negative commands, each introduced by a temporal infinitive construct clause with be- ("when/in"). The first clause, u-vekutzrekhem et-ketzir artzekhem ("and when you harvest the harvest of your land"), uses the construct chain ketzir artzekhem ("harvest of your land") to set the general agricultural context before the prohibition lo-tekhalleh ("you shall not finish/complete") governs the object pe'at sadkha ("the edge of your field"). The second clause repeats the structure with bekhutzrekha ("in your harvesting," singular suffix here, contrasting with the plural suffix in the first clause) and the prohibition lo telaqqet ("you shall not gather") governing leket ketzirkha ("the gleaning of your harvest").

Both prohibited actions — tekhalleh and telaqqet — are piel imperfects, a stem that in these verbs conveys a completed or deliberate action (fully finishing the reaping, or actively picking up fallen grain), which the negation forbids. The recipients are marked by the preposition le- attached to ha'ani ("the poor," H6041) and ha-ger ("the sojourner," H1616), followed by ta'azov otam ("you shall leave them"). The verse closes with the first-person self-identification ani YHWH eloheikhem ("I am Yehovah your God"), a formula recurring in this chapter without additional verbs, functioning as a standalone declarative clause.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew alternates suffix number: kutzrekhem (2nd m. pl., "your" harvesting collectively) in the first clause versus sadkha, kutzrekha, ketzirkha (2nd m. sing.) in the second. The LXX and Vulgate render both clauses in singular ("σου," "tu/tuae"), smoothing this shift. The Vulgate's usque ad solum ("all the way to the ground") makes explicit a spatial sense not stated by the Hebrew tekhalleh ("finish/complete"), which does not specify "to the ground." The LXX ta apopiptonta ("the things falling off") interprets leket (H3951) as fallen grain specifically, while the Hebrew term more broadly denotes "gleaning/remnant."