Leviticus 23:43

Summary

The verse states the purpose behind the practice of dwelling in sukkot ("booths"): so that future generations know that Yehovah made the people of Israel live in booths at the time he brought them out of the land of Egypt. It closes with a self-identification formula, "I am Yehovah your God."

Key words

• le.ma'an ("so that", H4616) — subordinating particle opening a purpose clause; it governs the following jussive verb and frames the whole verse as an explanation of intent.
• yede'u ("they may know", H3045) — qal jussive, third person masculine plural; expresses a desired/intended action ("let them know") rather than a simple statement of fact.
• sukkot ("booths", H5521) — feminine plural noun, preceded by the preposition-article va- ("in the"), naming the temporary structures at the center of the clause.
• hoshavti ("I caused to dwell", H3427) — hiphil (causative) perfect, first person singular; the causative stem marks Yehovah as the agent who made others dwell, not merely that they dwelled themselves.
• hotzi'i ("in my bringing out", H3318H) — hiphil infinitive with first-person suffix, governed by the preposition be- ("when/in"); it marks a temporal clause simultaneous with the main action.

What the text says

The sentence is built as a purpose clause introduced by le.ma'an ("so that", H4616), followed by the jussive verb yede'u ("they may know", H3045), whose subject is doroteikhem ("your generations", H1755 + H9026, construct with pronominal suffix). This construct chain ties the knowing directly to future generations, not the present addressees. The content of what is to be known is introduced by ki ("that", H3588A), and consists of a statement using the causative hiphil verb hoshavti ("I caused to dwell", H3427): the grammatical subject is Yehovah (first person), acting upon bnei Yisra'el ("the people of Israel", H1121G construct + H3478), marked by the object particle et (H0853). The causative stem is significant here: the text does not say the Israelites dwelled in booths on their own initiative, but that Yehovah caused them to do so.

This main clause is followed by a temporal subordinate clause using the infinitive construct hotzi'i ("in my bringing out", H3318H) with the preposition be-, meaning the dwelling in booths is set specifically in the timeframe of the exodus from Mitzrayim ("Egypt", H4714G). The verse ends with the self-identification formula ani Yehovah Eloheikhem ("I am Yehovah your God", H0589 + H3068G + H0430G construct + H9026), a first-person declarative sentence with no verb, using pronoun and title in apposition.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders yede'u ("they may know") with ἴδωσιν ("they may see"), a shift from a verb of knowing (H3045) to one of seeing, while the Vulgate uses discant ("let them learn"), also diverging from the semantic field of "knowing" toward "learning." The Hebrew hoshavti ("I caused to dwell", causative) is rendered in the LXX as κατοίκισα ("I settled/caused to dwell") and in the Vulgate as habitare fecerim ("I caused to dwell"), both preserving the causative sense found in the Hebrew hiphil.