Leviticus 27:12

Summary

The verse describes a priest assessing the value of something (referred to with a feminine pronoun, pointing back to an item introduced earlier in the chapter) as either good or bad. The valuation set by the priest is declared final and binding.

Key words

• he.'e.Rikh ("he will evaluate", H6186B) — hiphil (causative) sequential perfect: the priest performs an active assessment, continuing the narrative sequence from the prior verse.
• ko.Hen ("priest", H3548) — definite singular noun, repeated twice in the verse (lines 4 and 16), naming the sole authorized agent of valuation.
• Tov ("good", H2896A) and Ra' ("bad", H7451A) — paired masculine singular adjectives forming a merism ("between good and bad") that spans the full range of possible qualitative states.
• 'er.ke.Kha ("valuation of...your", H6187 + H9021) — construct noun with a 2nd person masculine singular suffix ("your valuation"), grammatically addressed to "you" even though the acting subject of the sentence is the 3rd-person "priest."
• yih.Yeh ("it will be", H1961) — qal imperfect, expressing the ongoing/future binding validity of the priest's assessment: "so it will be."

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence opens with a sequential verb, he.'e.Rikh ("he will evaluate", H6186B), whose subject is ha.ko.Hen ("the priest", H3548), acting on a feminine direct object marked by 'o.Ta+h ("it/her", H0853+H9034). The scope of the evaluation is set by the paired phrase bein Tov u.vein Ra' ("between good and between bad"), using the construct form bein (H0996G) twice to frame a merism covering the whole spectrum of quality.

The final clause contains a notable grammatical shift: ke.'er.ke.Kha ("according to your valuation", H6187+H9021) uses a 2nd person masculine singular suffix, addressing an implied "you," while the subject named directly afterward, ha.ko.Hen ("the priest", H3548), is 3rd person. The sentence thus moves from 3rd-person narration ("the priest will evaluate") to a 2nd-person possessive form ("your valuation") and back to 3rd person, before closing with ken yih.Yeh ("so it will be", H3651C+H1961), a qal imperfect stating that the assessed value stands as fixed.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the closing clause with a passive verb, τιμηθήσεται ("shall be valued"), avoiding the 2nd-person suffix present in the Hebrew 'er.ke.Kha ("your valuation"). The Vulgate simplifies further, stating only that the priest "judging whether it be good or bad, will set the price," without preserving the person-shift or the "good/bad" merism as two separate prepositional phrases found in the Hebrew.