Leviticus 6:2
נֶפֶשׁ כִּי תֶחֱטָא וּמָעֲלָה מַעַל בַּיהוָה וְכִחֵשׁ בַּעֲמִיתוֹ בְּפִקָּדוֹן אֽוֹ־בִתְשׂוּמֶת יָד אוֹ בְגָזֵל אוֹ עָשַׁק אֶת־עֲמִיתֽוֹ׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
נֶ֚פֶשׁ כִּ֣י תֶחֱטָ֔א וּמָעֲלָ֥ה מַ֖עַל בַּיהוָ֑ה וְכִחֵ֨שׁ בַּעֲמִית֜וֹ בְּפִקָּד֗וֹן אֽוֹ־בִתְשׂ֤וּמֶת יָד֙ א֣וֹ בְגָזֵ֔ל א֖וֹ עָשַׁ֥ק אֶת־עֲמִיתֽוֹ׃
Ψυχὴ ἐὰν ἁμάρτῃ καὶ παριδὼν παρίδῃ τὰς ἐντολὰς κυρίου καὶ ψεύσηται τὰ πρὸς τὸν πλησίον ἐν παραθήκῃ ἢ περὶ κοινωνίας ἢ περὶ ἁρπαγῆς ἢ ἠδίκησέν τι τὸν πλησίον
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
Anima quæ peccaverit, et contempto Domino, negaverit proximo suo depositum quod fidei ejus creditum fuerat, vel vi aliquid extorserit, aut calumniam fecerit,
“Si alguien peca y comete una falta contra Yehová engañando a su prójimo en cuestión de un depósito, un objeto en custodia o un robo, o si ha extorsionado a su prójimo,
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Cuando una persona pecare, é hiciere prevaricación contra Jehová, y negare á su prójimo lo encomendado, ó dejado en su mano, ó bien robare, ó calumniare á su prójimo;
“ If someone sins and acts unfaithfully against the LORD by deceiving his neighbor in regard to a deposit or security entrusted to him or stolen, or if he extorts his neighbor
✦ What the text says
Summary
Leviticus 6:2 (MT numbering; this corresponds to 5:21 in some versification systems) describes a case law: if a person sins by committing unfaithfulness against Yehovah through deceiving a fellow citizen regarding an entrusted item, a deposit, a robbery, or by oppression. The verse lists four distinct offense-scenarios connected by "or" ('o, H0176A).
Key words
- Ne.fesh ("anyone", H5315J) — feminine singular noun, functioning as the grammatical subject; despite being feminine, it refers to a person of either gender, hence the feminine verb forms that follow.
- te.che.Ta' ("it will sin", H2398) — qal imperfect, establishing the conditional/hypothetical frame introduced by ki ("if", H3588A).
- ma.'a.Lah ("it will act unfaithfully", H4603) paired with Ma.'al ("unfaithfulness", H4604) — a cognate accusative construction: the verb and its own noun object share the same root, intensifying the sense of the action ("acts an act of unfaithfulness").
- khi.Chesh ("he will deny", H3584) — piel (intensive) stem, sequential perfect, indicating deliberate, forceful denial rather than simple negation.
- 'a.Shak ("he has oppressed", H6231) — qal perfect, but without the narrative vav that links the preceding verbs; it stands grammatically separate from the chain.
What the text says
The sentence opens with Nefesh ki techeta — a conditional clause marking the general case ("anyone, if she/he sins"). What follows is a chain of sequential perfects (u-ma'alah, ve-chichesh) each introduced by the narrative vav (H9001), which in Hebrew narrative syntax continues the logical sequence begun by the initial imperfect: the person sins, and thereby acts unfaithfully against Yehovah (ba-YHWH, H3068G), and denies against his fellow citizen (ba-amito, H5997 + H9023) regarding an entrusted item (pikkadon, H6487), deposited property (teshumet yad, H8667+H3027G), or robbery (gazel, H1498).
The final clause, 'o ashak et-amito ("or he has oppressed his fellow citizen"), uses a bare qal perfect without the connecting vav, breaking the sequential chain used for the previous verbs. This grammatical shift sets the last scenario (oppression) apart syntactically from the three items joined by 'o ("or", H0176A) that precede it, though all four remain grouped as alternative circumstances triggering the same case.
Differences between versions
The LXX renders ma'alah ma'al ba-YHWH ("acts unfaithfully against Yehovah") as "παριδὼν παρίδῃ τὰς ἐντολὰς κυρίου" ("disregarding, disregards the commandments of the Lord"), introducing "commandments" (ἐντολάς), a concept not present in the Hebrew, which speaks directly of unfaithfulness toward Yehovah rather than toward specific commandments. The Vulgate similarly shifts the image with "contempto Domino" ("the Lord having been despised"), using "contempt" rather than the Hebrew's cognate-accusative "unfaithfulness." The Hebrew khichesh ("deny", piel) is rendered by the LXX as ψεύσηται ("lies"), a related but distinct semantic choice.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.