Leviticus 25:38

Summary

The verse identifies the speaker as YHWH, the deity of the addressees, who brought them out of Egypt with the stated purpose of giving them the land of Canaan and becoming their God. The sentence links a self-identification formula to two infinitival purpose clauses.

Key words

• 'a.Ni ("I", H0589) — independent personal pronoun placed first, giving emphatic self-identification before the divine name.
• ho.Tze.ti ("I brought out", H3318H) — hiphil (causative) perfect, first-person singular; the causative stem marks the subject as the agent causing the exit ("cause to go out"), and the perfect aspect presents it as a completed act.
• la.Tet ("to give", H5414G) — qal infinitive with prefixed preposition la ("to"), forming a purpose clause: the action of bringing out serves the goal of giving.
• l.hi.Yot ("to become/to be", H1961) — qal infinitive with prefixed preposition li, forming a second purpose clause, parallel in structure to la.Tet.
• le.lo.Him ("into God", H0430G) — the noun 'Elohim preceded by the preposition le ("into/as"), marking the resulting status ("to be as God to you") rather than a simple predicate noun.

What the text says

The verse opens with the pronoun 'a.Ni ("I", H0589) followed immediately by the proper name Yah.weh (H3068G) and the construct-plus-suffix phrase 'e.Lo.hei.khem ("God of you", H0430G + H9026), producing the self-declaration "I, YHWH, [am] God of you." A relative clause introduced by 'a.Sher ("who", H0834A) then attaches the historical action to this identity: ho.Tze.ti ("I brought out", H3318H) is a hiphil perfect, showing that the subject (YHWH) caused the object—marked by 'et plus suffix khem ("you")—to leave, and the perfect aspect frames this as a completed event, not ongoing.

The remainder of the verse is built on two parallel infinitive-with-preposition constructions, both governed by the earlier act of bringing out: la.Tet ("to give", H5414G) and li.h.Yot ("to become", H1961). Each infinitive is followed by la.khem ("to/for you"), repeating the beneficiary. The first infinitive clause specifies the object given—'et 'E.retz Ke.Na'an ("the land of Canaan")—using the construct noun 'E.retz ("land of", H0776G) plus the place name. The second infinitive clause states a resulting relational status, marked by the preposition le attached to 'Elohim ("God", H0430G), rather than a simple equative statement; the grammar presents "becoming God to you" as a purpose or outcome tied syntactically to the exodus event, paralleling "giving the land" as an outcome of the same act.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the relative clause with a participle (ho exagagōn, "the one having led out") rather than the finite relative-clause-plus-perfect-verb construction of the Hebrew ('a.Sher ho.Tze.ti, "who I brought out"). The Vulgate follows the Hebrew relative-clause pattern (qui eduxi, "who I led out"). For the final clause, the LXX uses a result construction (hōste einai, "so as to be"), the Vulgate uses a subjunctive purpose clause (ut... essem, "that I might be"), while the Hebrew employs the infinitive li.h.Yot ("to become") with the preposition le on 'Elohim, marking the outcome without a finite verb.