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Leviticus 5:2

אוֹ נֶפֶשׁ אֲשֶׁר תִּגַּע בְּכָל־דָּבָר טָמֵא אוֹ בְנִבְלַת חַיָּה טְמֵאָה אוֹ בְּנִבְלַת בְּהֵמָה טְמֵאָה אוֹ בְּנִבְלַת שֶׁרֶץ טָמֵא וְנֶעְלַם מִמֶּנּוּ וְהוּא טָמֵא וְאָשֵֽׁם׃

✦ Hebrew interlinear

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✦ The same verse in five languages

Hebrew

א֣וֹ נֶ֗פֶשׁ אֲשֶׁ֣ר תִּגַּע֮ בְּכָל־דָּבָ֣ר טָמֵא֒ אוֹ֩ בְנִבְלַ֨ת חַיָּ֜ה טְמֵאָ֗ה א֤וֹ בְּנִבְלַת֙ בְּהֵמָ֣ה טְמֵאָ֔ה א֕וֹ בְּנִבְלַ֖ת שֶׁ֣רֶץ טָמֵ֑א וְנֶעְלַ֣ם מִמֶּ֔נּוּ וְה֥וּא טָמֵ֖א וְאָשֵֽׁם׃

Greek (Septuagint)

ἢ ψυχὴ ἥτις ἐὰν ἅψηται παντὸς πράγματος ἀκαθάρτου, ἢ θνησιμαίου ἢ θηριαλώτου ἀκαθάρτου ἢ τῶν θνησιμαίων ἢ τῶν βδελυγμάτων τῶν ἀκαθάρτων ἢ τῶν θνησιμαίων κτηνῶν τῶν ἀκαθάρτων,

Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0

Latin (Vulgate)

Anima quæ tetigerit aliquid immundum, sive quod occisum a bestia est, aut per se mortuum, aut quodlibet aliud reptile: et oblita fuerit immunditiæ suæ, rea est, et deliquit:

Spanish

“‘O si alguien toca algo impuro, ya sea el cadáver de un animal salvaje, o el cadáver de un animal doméstico, o el cadáver de un reptil impuro, aunque no se dé cuenta de ello, si se contamina, entonces será culpable.

Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)

Asimismo la persona que hubiere tocado en cualquiera cosa inmunda, sea cuerpo muerto de bestia inmunda, ó cuerpo muerto de animal inmundo, ó cuerpo muerto de reptil inmundo, bien que no lo supiere, será inmunda y habrá delinquido:

English

Or if a person touches anything unclean — whether the carcass of any unclean wild animal or livestock or crawling creature —even if he is unaware of it, he is unclean and guilty.

✦ What the text says

Summary

The verse describes a case of ritual impurity contracted unknowingly: a person who touches something unclean — whether the carcass of an unclean wild animal, of unclean livestock, or of an unclean swarming creature — becomes impure. Even if the fact escapes the person's notice, the text states that the person is unclean and bears guilt.

Key words

  • nefesh ("anyone", H5315J) — feminine singular noun, here used generically for "a person," regardless of the grammatical gender of the individual involved.
  • tigga' ("it will touch", H5060) — qal imperfect, marking an open, potential future action: the law addresses any case that "may" occur, not a specific past event.
  • nivlat ("a carcass of", H5038) — construct form repeated three times, each time linking to a different animal category (wild animal, livestock, swarming thing), building a list of parallel conditions.
  • ne'lam ("it will be hidden", H5956) — niphal (passive) sequential perfect: the subject is not "the person who forgets" but the fact itself, which "is hidden from him" — the grammar places the unawareness outside the person's control.
  • asham ("he will be guilty", H0816) — qal sequential perfect, the final verb in the chain, stating the legal consequence after the sequence of touching, hiding, and being unclean.

What the text says

The verse is built as a conditional sentence introduced by 'o ("or", H0176A), which links this case to a preceding condition in the chapter, and it lists three types of unclean carcasses using the same construct pattern nivlat + noun ("carcass of..."): a wild animal (chayyah, H2416C), livestock (behemah, H0929), and a swarming creature (sheretz, H8318), each qualified by the adjective tame' ("unclean", H2931). This repetition creates a structured list rather than a single generic category.

The second half of the verse turns on the niphal verb ne'lam, "it is hidden from him" (H5956), which grammatically shifts responsibility for the unawareness away from the person: the text does not say "he forgot" but that the matter "was hidden from him," using a passive construction with the preposition mimmennu ("from him"). The sequence then closes with two verbless or verbal clauses joined by narrative vav: "he is unclean" (tame') and "he will be guilty" (asham, H0816), presenting impurity and guilt as sequential outcomes rather than simultaneous states.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate renders ne'lam mimmennu ("hidden from him") as oblita fuerit immunditiæ suæ ("she forgot her uncleanness"), shifting the passive "hidden" into an active verb of forgetting attributed to the anima. The LXX translates sheretz tame' ("unclean swarming thing", H8318/H2931) as τῶν βδελυγμάτων τῶν ἀκαθάρτων ("unclean abominations"), a broader term than the Hebrew's more specific "swarming thing." The LXX text provided also ends at the list of carcasses, without rendering the clauses corresponding to ne'lam, tame', and asham found in the Hebrew.

This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.