Leviticus 27:10

Summary

The verse prohibits substituting a consecrated animal, whether exchanging a good one for a bad one or a bad one for a good one. It then states that if such a substitution nevertheless occurs, both the original animal and its replacement become holy.

Key words

• yachalifennu ("he will substitute it", H2498) — Hiphil imperfect, a causative verb meaning "to cause a change/replacement," with the pronominal suffix "it" attached directly to the verb.
• yamir ("he will exchange", H4171) — Hiphil imperfect, appears three times in the verse; it denotes an act of exchanging one item for another.
• hamer yamir ("he will surely exchange", H4171 + H4171) — the infinitive absolute hamer combined with the finite imperfect yamir of the same root, a construction that intensifies or emphasizes the certainty of the action.
• behemah bivhemah ("an animal for an animal", H0929) — two occurrences of the same feminine noun, one with the preposition be ("for"), expressing a direct one-for-one exchange.
• temurato ("its substitute", H8545) — a feminine noun in construct form with a possessive suffix, naming the replacement animal itself as a distinct entity from the original.

What the text says

The verse opens with two parallel negated clauses built on different verbs from the same semantic field: lo' yachalifennu ("he will not substitute it", H2498) and ve-lo' yamir oto ("and he will not exchange it", H4171). Both use Hiphil imperfect forms, marking these as ongoing or general prohibitions rather than one-time commands. The object suffixes ("it") attach directly to the verbs, keeping the referent (the vowed animal) grammatically bound to the prohibited action itself.

The phrase tov be-ra' o ra' be-tov ("good for bad or bad for good") uses the preposition be (H9003) in a commercial/exchange sense — "in place of" — applying the prohibition symmetrically in both directions: neither upgrading nor downgrading the offering is permitted.

The conditional clause shifts grammatical construction sharply: ve-im hamer yamir pairs the infinitive absolute hamer with the finite verb yamir, both from H4171. This doubling is a feature of the Hebrew verbal system that intensifies the verb's force, here underscoring the hypothetical but decisive nature of the act — "if he does indeed exchange." The consequence is introduced by ve-hayah (H1961, sequential perfect), a narrative-continuing form that logically follows from the conditional, stating that both hu' ("it," the original animal) and temurato ("its substitute," H8545, a construct noun explicitly naming the replacement) will become qodesh ("a holy thing," H6944).

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the two Hebrew prohibition verbs (yachalifennu, yamir) with a single verb ἀλλάξει ("he will exchange"), collapsing the two synonymous roots into one Greek verb repeated conceptually rather than lexically differentiated. The Vulgate similarly uses mutari for both, matching the LXX's consolidation rather than preserving two distinct Hebrew roots. The Vulgate also adds "Domino" ("to the Lord") in the final clause, a specification not present in the Hebrew text, which simply states the outcome as qodesh ("holy") without naming a recipient.