Leviticus 4:13

Summary

Leviticus 4:13 addresses the case in which the entire congregation of Israel commits an unintentional collective error: the matter remains hidden from the assembly's awareness, they act against one of Yehovah's commandments, and thereby incur guilt.

Key words

• yish.Gu ("they will go astray", H7686) — qal imperfect, describing the congregation's ongoing or future straying; expresses an action not yet completed at the moment of speaking, characteristic of case-law formulations ("if/when they go astray").
• ne'.Lam ("it will be hidden", H5956) — niphal (passive) sequential perfect; the matter is not merely unknown but "hidden," with the passive voice removing any named agent who conceals it — it simply escapes perception.
• 'ei.Nei ("eyes of", H5869A) — feminine dual construct; the dual form marks the paired body part "eyes," used idiomatically for perception or awareness of the assembly.
• te.'a.Sei.nah ("they will be done", H6213A) — niphal imperfect feminine plural, referring back to mitz.Vot ("commandments"); the passive construction shifts focus from the agent violating the command to the commandments themselves as the things "not to be done."
• 'a.She.mu ("they will be guilty", H0816) — qal sequential perfect; the final verb in the chain, marking the resulting state of guilt as the consequence of the preceding actions.

What the text says

The verse is built as a conditional chain introduced by 'Im ("if", H0518A), followed by a sequence of verbs linked by the narrative ve ("and", H9001), which in Biblical Hebrew syntax often marks consecutive or sequential action rather than simple addition. The subject, kol-'a.Dat Yis.ra.'El ("all the congregation of Israel", H3605/H5712/H3478), is treated grammatically as a singular collective noun governing a plural verb (yish.Gu), showing that the community acts as one body while remaining grammatically plural in its verbal agreement.

The structure moves through four sequential verbs: straying (yish.Gu), the matter being hidden (ne'.Lam, niphal), the commandment being violated ('a.su... mitz.Vot), and the assembly incurring guilt ('a.She.mu). Two of these verbs are niphal forms — ne'.Lam and te.'a.Sei.nah — both passive, which places emphasis on what happens to the "matter" (da.Var, H1697I) and to the "commandments" (mitz.Vot) rather than on identifying who conceals or who violates. The relative clause 'a.Sher lo'-te.'a.Sei.nah ("which shall not be done", H0834A/H3808) modifies mitz.Vot, characterizing the commandments by their prohibitive content.

Differences between versions

The LXX adds ἀκουσίως ("unintentionally"), a qualifier not present as a separate lexical item in the Hebrew text's word list, though the sense of inadvertent error is conveyed there through the broader narrative context of Leviticus 4. The Vulgate renders the collective straying with ignoraverit ("shall have been ignorant") and per imperitiam ("through inexperience/ignorance"), interpretively specifying causation not made explicit by the Hebrew verb yish.Gu ("they will go astray") alone.