Leviticus 26:3

Summary

Leviticus 26:3 opens a conditional clause (the protasis of a larger sentence whose consequences follow in later verses). It names three actions expected of the addressees: walking in God's chuqqot ("statutes", H2708), keeping God's mitzvot ("commandments", H4687), and doing them.

Key words

• 'im ("if", H0518A) — conditional particle that opens the verse and marks everything following as a hypothetical protasis, not a statement of fact.
• chuqqotai ("my statutes", H2708 + H9020) — feminine plural noun in construct form with a first-person suffix, literally "statutes of me"; the construct form links the noun grammatically to the possessing pronoun.
• telekhu ("you will walk", H1980I) — qal imperfect, second person masculine plural, denoting an action understood as ongoing or repeated ("walking" used metaphorically for a course of conduct).
• mitzvotai ("my commandments", H4687 + H9020) — feminine plural construct noun with suffix, parallel in form to chuqqotai.
• 'asitem ("you will do/have done", H6213A) — qal perfect with vav, marked as "sequential perfect," which continues the verbal chain begun by the two imperfects rather than introducing a separate tense.

What the text says

The verse is built as a three-part verbal sequence inside a conditional frame introduced by 'im ("if", H0518A). The first two verbs, telekhu ("you will walk", H1980I) and tishmeru ("you will keep", H8104G), are both qal imperfect, second-person masculine plural, expressing parallel future or ongoing actions. The third verb, 'asitem ("you will do", H6213A), shifts to a vav-prefixed perfect form functioning sequentially — a common Hebrew construction where a perfect verb with vav continues a chain of imperfects rather than marking a completed past action. This creates a rising structure: walking in the chuqqotai ("my statutes", H2708), keeping the mitzvotai ("my commandments", H4687), and finally doing "them" ('otam, referring back to both nouns via the object markers 'et and the pronominal suffix -am, H9038).

The two objects, chuqqotai and mitzvotai, are both feminine plural nouns in construct form with the first-person singular suffix -i (H9020), producing symmetrical phrasing ("statutes of me... commandments of me"). This grammatical parallelism reinforces the paired verbs telekhu / tishmeru, before the sentence resolves into the summarizing verb 'asitem ("you will do them"), which encompasses both preceding objects via the plural suffix "them" (H9038).

Differences between versions

The LXX renders chuqqotai ("my statutes", H2708) as prostagmasin ("ordinances/precepts") rather than a term matching "statutes," and translates the sequential perfect 'asitem with a subjunctive poiēsēte ("you might do"), keeping all three verbs in a uniform subjunctive mood, unlike the Hebrew's shift from imperfect to perfect. The Vulgate uses three parallel future perfect verbs (ambulaveritis, custodieritis, feceritis), smoothing the Hebrew's imperfect-imperfect-perfect sequence into a single uniform Latin tense pattern.