Leviticus 26:34

Summary

The verse describes a future state in which the land will "accept" or enjoy its Sabbaths precisely during the period when it lies desolate and its people are exiled in the territory of their enemies. The passage uses two parallel "then" clauses to frame this reversal: the land's rest comes only after depopulation.

Key words

• tirtzeh ("it will accept", H7521) — qal imperfect, third person feminine, referring to ha'aretz ("the land"). Describes the land's future action of accepting or enjoying something.
• shabbetotei-ha ("its sabbaths", H7676) — feminine plural noun in construct with a pronominal suffix ("her"), naming what the land accepts.
• hoshamah ("being made desolate", H8074) — hophal infinitive, a causative-passive form indicating a state brought about by an external agent, here modifying "all the days of" (kol yemei).
• tishbat ("it will cease", H7673A) — qal imperfect, third feminine, from a root distinct from tirtzeh though translated similarly in some versions; it denotes cessation or rest as an event.
• hirtzat ("it will accept", H7521) — hiphil sequential perfect, same root as tirtzeh but in the causative stem, continuing the narrative sequence after tishbat.

What the text says

The verse is built on two parallel structures, each opened by 'az ("then", H0227A): "then the land will accept [tirtzeh] its sabbaths... then the land will cease [tishbat]... and it will accept [hirtzat] its sabbaths." The repetition of the root behind tirtzeh and hirtzat (H7521) links the opening and closing statements, but the grammatical shift from qal imperfect to hiphil sequential perfect marks a shift from simple future action to a causatively framed continuation within the narrative chain introduced by the vav on hirtzat (item 22-23).

The phrase kol yemei hoshamah ("all the days of its being made desolate") uses the hophal infinitive to describe desolation as something done to the land by an outside cause, without naming the agent grammatically. The clause "ve'atem be'eretz 'oyveikhem" ("and you [will be] in the land of your enemies") is inserted between the first and second "then" clauses, meaning the land's Sabbath-observance and the people's exile are stated as simultaneous conditions rather than sequential events.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders both tirtzeh and hirtzat with the same verb, εὐδοκήσει ("it will be well-pleased/enjoy"), collapsing the Hebrew's qal/hiphil distinction between the two occurrences of the same root. The LXX also joins "all the days of desolation" (πάσας τὰς ἡμέρας τῆς ἐρημώσεως) as a second object alongside "her sabbaths," rather than as a separate temporal clause as in the Hebrew construct chain kol yemei hoshamah. The Vulgate uses placebunt ("they will please"), a different verb concept than "accept/enjoy," and the provided text breaks off mid-clause at "quando fueritis" ("when you will have been"), continuing into the following verse.