Leviticus 27:22

Summary

Leviticus 27:22 addresses the case of a person who consecrates to Yehovah a field he acquired by purchase, distinguishing it from land that belongs to his ancestral holding. The verse sets up a conditional clause defining which type of field is under discussion before the following verses specify how it is to be valued.

Key words

• mikNat ("purchase", H4736) — feminine singular construct noun, forming the phrase "field of his purchase" (sedeh mikNato), marking the land as acquired rather than inherited.
• achuzZat ("possession", H0272) — feminine singular construct noun, paired with the suffix "his," referring to ancestral or family-held property, contrasted with purchased land.
• 'asher ("which", H0834A) — relative particle introducing the clause that qualifies the field as not being part of the ancestral possession.
• yakDish ("he will set apart as holy", H6942H) — Hiphil imperfect verb, third person masculine singular; the causative stem indicates the subject actively causes the field to become consecrated, and the imperfect aspect marks this as a future or potential action.
• 'Im ("if", H0518A) — conditional particle opening the verse, establishing this as one case among several scenarios treated in the surrounding legal material.

What the text says

The verse is built as a conditional sentence introduced by ve'Im ("and if"). The object of the conditional action, sedeh mikNato ("the field of his purchase"), is marked by the direct object particle 'et (H0853) and placed early in the clause, ahead of the verb — a common construction in Hebrew legal or casuistic style that foregrounds the object under discussion before stating the action. This field is then qualified by a relative clause, 'asher lo' missedeh achuzZato ("which is not from the field of his possession"), which uses the negation lo' (H3808) together with the preposition min ("from," H9006) to exclude ancestral land from this category.

The main verb, yakDish, appears at the end of the clause, in keeping with Hebrew word order where the verb often follows extended qualifying phrases in conditional legal statements. Its Hiphil stem indicates that the subject performs an act that results in the field's consecrated status, dedicated la-Yehovah ("to Yehovah," H9005 + H3068G). The construction distinguishes two categories of land — purchased field (sedeh mikNato) versus ancestral holding (sedeh achuzZato) — a distinction that governs how the following verses in the chapter treat valuation and redemption.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate renders achuzZato ("his possession") as "possessione majorum" ("possession of the ancestors/elders"), making explicit the inherited nature of the land, a nuance implicit in the Hebrew construct form but not stated with the word "ancestors" itself. The LXX uses κατασχέσεως ("possession/holding"), closer to a literal rendering of achuzZah without adding the ancestral specification. The Spanish RV1909 and SBLIBRE render achuzZato as "herencia" ("inheritance") or "propiedad familiar" ("family property"), similarly interpreting the term beyond a bare "possession."