Leviticus 24:12

Summary

The verse reports that a man (referred to only by the pronoun "him") was placed in custody, with the purpose of deciding his case according to a word from Yehovah. The Hebrew presents this as a narrative action followed by an infinitival clause expressing intent.

Key words

• va-yanniḥuhu ("and they placed him", H5117 + H9033) — hiphil (causative) narrative verb with a 3rd person masculine plural subject and a 3rd person masculine singular pronominal suffix; the hiphil stem indicates that the subject caused the object ("him") to rest/be placed somewhere.
• ba-mishmar ("in the custody", H9003 + H4929) — preposition plus article plus a masculine singular noun, indicating the specific place where the man was put.
• li-fros ("to decide", H9005 + H6567A) — preposition li attached to a qal infinitive, forming a purpose clause: "in order to decide."
• la-hem ("for themselves", H9005 + H9038) — preposition plus 3rd person masculine plural suffix, marking the group for whom the decision was to be made.
• 'al-pi YHWH ("upon the mouth of Yehovah", H5921A + H6310I + H3068G) — a construct phrase literally "mouth of Yehovah," used with the preposition 'al ("upon/according to") to indicate the standard or source of the decision.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence opens with the narrative verb va-yanniḥuhu, built on the hiphil stem, which grammatically marks the subject (an unspecified "they") as causing the direct object (marked by the suffix -hu, "him") to be placed ba-mishmar, "in the custody." This clause states the action without naming either the actors or the man being placed, since the referents rely on unspecified subject and object markers.

The second clause, introduced by li-fros, gives the purpose of the placement: "to decide." The infinitive is qal, without added derived nuance, expressing the basic action of deciding. This decision is explicitly said to be la-hem, "for themselves," indicating that the outcome of the custody applies to the group referenced by the earlier "they." The final phrase, 'al-pi YHWH, uses the construct noun pi ("mouth of") governed by 'al ("upon/according to") to describe the basis of the decision as coming from Yehovah's "mouth" — a Hebrew idiom placing the decision on the authority or utterance attributed to Yehovah.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the purpose clause as diakrinai auton dia prostagmatos kyriou, "to judge/decide him through a commandment of the Lord," adding an explicit direct object auton ("him") that is not present as a separate word in the Hebrew infinitive clause, where the object is only implied by context. The Vulgate renders it as donec nossent quid juberet Dominus, "until they might know what the Lord commanded," shifting the Hebrew infinitive-of-purpose construction into a temporal clause with a subjunctive verb of knowing, and rendering 'al-pi YHWH ("upon the mouth of Yehovah") as "what the Lord commanded" rather than a literal "mouth" idiom.