Leviticus 26:43
וְהָאָרֶץ תֵּעָזֵב מֵהֶם וְתִרֶץ אֶת־שַׁבְּתֹתֶיהָ בָּהְשַׁמָּה מֵהֶם וְהֵם יִרְצוּ אֶת־עֲוֹנָם יַעַן וּבְיַעַן בְּמִשְׁפָּטַי מָאָסוּ וְאֶת־חֻקֹּתַי גָּעֲלָה נַפְשָֽׁם׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
וְהָאָרֶץ֩ תֵּעָזֵ֨ב מֵהֶ֜ם וְתִ֣רֶץ אֶת־שַׁבְּתֹתֶ֗יהָ בָּהְשַׁמָּה֙ מֵהֶ֔ם וְהֵ֖ם יִרְצ֣וּ אֶת־עֲוֹנָ֑ם יַ֣עַן וּבְיַ֔עַן בְּמִשְׁפָּטַ֣י מָאָ֔סוּ וְאֶת־חֻקֹּתַ֖י גָּעֲלָ֥ה נַפְשָֽׁם׃
καὶ ἡ γῆ ἐνκαταλειφθήσεται ὑπ’ αὐτῶν· τότε προσδέξεται ἡ γῆ τὰ σάββατα αὐτῆς ἐν τῷ ἐρημωθῆναι αὐτὴν δι’ αὐτούς, καὶ αὐτοὶ προσδέξονται τὰς αὐτῶν ἀνομίας ἀνθ’ ὧν τὰ κρίματά μου ὑπερεῖδον καὶ τοῖς προστάγμασίν μου προσώχθισαν τῇ ψυχῇ αὐτῶν.
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
quæ cum relicta fuerit ab eis, complacebit sibi in sabbatis suis, patiens solitudinem propter illos. Ipsi vero rogabunt pro peccatis suis, eo quod abjecerint judicia mea, et leges meas despexerint.
Porque la tierra deberá ser abandonada por ellos para que pueda disfrutar de sus años de reposo mientras esté desolada. Ellos tendrán que pagar por sus pecados, porque despreciaron mis leyes y rechazaron mis reglamentos.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Que la tierra estará desamparada de ellos, y holgará sus sábados, estando yerma á causa de ellos; mas entretanto se someterán al castigo de sus iniquidades: por cuanto menospreciaron mis derechos, y tuvo el alma de ellos fastidio de mis estatutos.
For the land will be abandoned by them, and it will enjoy its Sabbaths by lying desolate without them. And they will pay the penalty for their iniquity, because they rejected My ordinances and abhorred My statutes.
✦ What the text says
Summary
Leviticus 26:43 describes the land being abandoned by its inhabitants and thereby "enjoying" its sabbath-years while lying desolate. It then states that the people will bear the consequence of their iniquity, explained by two parallel clauses: they rejected the mishpatim ("judgments") and their nefesh ("soul/self") abhorred the chukkot ("statutes").
Key words
- te'azev ("it will be forsaken", H5800A) — niphal (passive) imperfect: the land is not the agent but the one acted upon, undergoing abandonment.
- tiretz ("it may accept/enjoy", H7521) — qal jussive of the same root used later in the verse; here applied to the land accepting/being pleased with its sabbaths during desolation.
- yirtzu ("they will accept/pay", H7521) — qal imperfect, same root as tiretz but now with the people as subject, applied to "accepting" their avon ("iniquity", H5771G).
- ga'alah ("it abhorred", H1602) — qal perfect, completed action; grammatical subject is nafsham ("their soul/self", H5315I), a construct-plus-suffix noun functioning as the seat of aversion.
- ma'asu ("they rejected", H3988A) — qal perfect, completed action, parallel to ga'alah, describing the people's stance toward the mishpatim ("judgments", H4941G).
What the text says
The Hebrew builds the verse around a single root, ר-צ-ה (H7521), used twice with different grammatical forms and different grammatical subjects. First it appears as tiretz, a jussive with the land as subject: the land "may accept" or "enjoy" its sabbaths while desolate, precisely because the people are absent (mehem, "from them"). Second, it appears as yirtzu, an imperfect with the people as subject, applied to their avon ("iniquity") — they will "accept" or bear the consequence of it. This repetition of the same verb across two different subjects and object types (sabbaths vs. iniquity) creates a structural parallel between the land's fate and the people's fate that is not preserved when translations render the two occurrences with different English verbs (e.g., "enjoy" and "pay the penalty").
The final two clauses are constructed as a chiasm of completed (perfect) actions: mishpatai ma'asu ("they rejected my judgments") and chukkotai ga'alah nafsham ("their soul abhorred my statutes"). Both mishpatim and chukkot appear in construct form with the first-person suffix -ai ("my"), marking them as belonging to the speaker. The subject of the second clause is not "they" directly but nafsham, "their soul/self," placing the aversion inside the interior faculty rather than stated as a direct action of the people themselves.
Differences between versions
The Hebrew and LXX both use forms of the same root for the people's response to iniquity — Hebrew yirtzu ("they will accept/bear") and Greek προσδέξονται ("they will accept/receive") — preserving the parallel with the earlier verb applied to the land. The Vulgate departs from this, rendering the clause as "ipsi vero rogabunt pro peccatis suis" ("they will plead/pray for their sins"), which introduces a different verbal action (pleading) not present as the same root-repetition found in the Hebrew and Greek.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.