Leviticus 4:2

Summary

Leviticus 4:2 opens the instructions for the sin-offering by having Yehovah command Moses to speak to the Israelites about a case in which a person (nefesh, H5315J) commits an unintentional violation (bishgagah, H7684) of any of Yehovah's prohibitive commandments. The verse establishes the conditional/casuistic legal formula that introduces the specific scenarios which follow.

Key words

• da.Ber ("speak", H1696G) — piel imperative, an intensive command form directing Moses to transmit the following legislation.
• Ne.fesh ("anyone/soul", H5315J) — grammatically feminine singular noun; though it means "a person" of either sex, it forces the following verbs into feminine agreement.
• te.che.Ta' ("she will sin", H2398) — qal imperfect, feminine, agreeing grammatically with nefesh; expresses a hypothetical/future action within the conditional clause introduced by ki ("if/that", H3588A).
• bi.sh.ga.Gah ("by inadvertence", H7684) — feminine singular noun marking the sin as unintentional, distinguishing this case from deliberate transgression.
• te.'a.Sei.nah ("they will be done", H6213A) — niphal (passive) imperfect, feminine plural, referring back to mitzvot ("commandments", H4687), describing acts that are not to be performed.

What the text says

The verse follows the classic casuistic legal pattern: an introductory command (dabber... le'mor, "speak... saying") followed by a conditional clause built on nefesh ki ("a person, if..."). Because nefesh is grammatically feminine in Hebrew, the verbs describing the person's action — techeta ("she will sin") — carry feminine verbal morphology, even though the referent is any individual regardless of sex. This grammatical feature is a function of Hebrew noun gender, not a statement about the sex of the offender.

The clause mikkol mitzvot Yehovah 'asher lo te'aseinah ("from any of the commandments of Yehovah that are not to be done") uses a niphal (passive) imperfect plural feminine verb, te'aseinah, agreeing with the plural feminine mitzvot ("commandments"). This construction frames the commandments not as being violated directly but as actions that "are not to be done" — a passive, prohibitive framing typical of legal formulation.

The sequence then shifts grammatically: ve'asah ("and he will do", H6213A) is a qal sequential perfect in the masculine, continuing the narrative chain begun with the feminine techeta. This shift from feminine to masculine verb forms across the verse reflects the grammatical flexibility of Hebrew legal style rather than a change in the subject referred to; nefesh remains the same generic referent throughout.

Differences between versions

The LXX adds the phrase ἔναντι Κυρίου ("before the Lord") after ἁμάρτῃ ("sins"), a phrase not present in the Hebrew text, which reads only techeta bishgagah ("she will sin by inadvertence") without a locative or relational phrase. The Vulgate renders bishgagah as per ignorantiam ("through ignorance"), a translation choice emphasizing lack of knowledge rather than the Hebrew's broader sense of inadvertent error. The Hebrew's mikkol mitzvot Yehovah ("from any of the commandments of Yehovah") is rendered in the LXX as ἀπὸ τῶν προσταγμάτων κυρίου ("from the ordinances of the Lord"), using προστάγματα rather than a term parallel to "commandments" elsewhere in the LXX Pentateuch.