Leviticus 26:8

Summary

Leviticus 26:8 describes a disproportionate military outcome: a small number of Israelites will pursue and rout a much larger number of enemies. The verse presents a numerical escalation (five over a hundred, a hundred over ten thousand) followed by a statement that the enemies will fall before them by the sword.

Key words

• rad.Fu ("they will pursue", H7291) — qal sequential perfect (vav-consecutive), continuing the narrative sequence begun in the preceding verses; grammatically marks this as a consequence following from prior conditions.
• yir.Do.fu ("they will pursue", H7291) — same root as above but in the imperfect form, describing the second half of the ratio (hundred vs. ten thousand); the shift from perfect to imperfect within the same verse creates internal variation in verb aspect while both refer to future action.
• re.va.Vah ("ten thousand", H7233) — feminine singular noun functioning as a large round number, paired with me.'Ah ("one hundred", H3967) to complete the second ratio.
• 'o.ye.vei. ("enemies", H0341) — qal participle, masculine plural construct ("enemies of"), literally "the ones being hostile to you," bound to the suffix khem ("your").
• Cha.rev ("sword", H2719) — feminine singular noun preceded by the preposition-article le. ("to the"), indicating the instrument/means of the enemies' fall.

What the text says

The verse is built on a repeated grammatical pattern: a small number + preposition mi. ("of/from") + suffix khem ("you") + a larger number, twice in succession, each time followed by a form of the verb radaf ("to pursue", H7291). The first instance, rad.Fu, appears as a sequential perfect continuing the narrative chain from the previous verse (marked by the vav on ve.). The second instance, yir.Do.fu, shifts to the imperfect form, describing the same type of action (pursuit) but for the second numerical pair (hundred against ten thousand). This alternation between perfect and imperfect for the same verb root within one verse is a feature of the Hebrew verbal system that does not necessarily indicate a difference in time reference but can mark stylistic or structural variation in poetic/legal parallelism.

The second clause, introduced again by a narrative vav (ve. + naf.Lu, "they will fall"), shifts the grammatical subject to "your enemies" ('o.ye.vei.khem), a qal participle construct meaning literally "ones hostile to you." The phrase li.f.nei.khem ("before you") uses the construct noun f.nei ("face of") with the second-person plural suffix, a common Hebrew idiom for "in front of" or "in the presence of." The final phrase, le.Cha.rev ("to/by the sword"), names the instrument of the enemies' fall.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders re.va.Vah ("ten thousand", H7233) as μυριάδας ("myriads"), a plural form, whereas the Hebrew uses a singular collective noun. The Vulgate adds the word "alienos" ("strangers/foreigners") after "centum" in the first clause, a word with no corresponding lexical item in the Hebrew text at that position, apparently supplied to clarify who is being pursued.