Leviticus 6:27

Summary

The verse establishes two consequences related to the flesh and blood of a sacrificial offering: whatever touches the meat becomes holy, and if the blood spatters onto a garment, that garment must be washed in a holy place. The Hebrew moves between impersonal statements and a direct second-person command.

Key words

• yiqdash ("it will be holy", H6942G) — qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular. The verb describes a resulting state (becoming holy) triggered by contact with the flesh, without specifying an agent who performs the sanctifying.
• yizeh ("it will spatter", H5137A) — qal imperfect, appearing twice (referring to the blood spattering on the garment, then to what has been spattered on it). The repetition marks two distinct clauses: one naming the blood's action, one referring back to the affected garment.
• bevsarah ("in its flesh", H1320 + H9024) — construct noun with 3rd feminine singular suffix ("its/her flesh"), referring back to the sacrificial animal.
• tekhabes ("you will wash", H3526H) — piel imperfect, 2nd person masculine singular. Unlike the surrounding verbs, this form directly addresses a "you," shifting from general statements to a command aimed at a specific individual (likely the priest handling the offering).
• qadosh ("holy", H6918G) — masculine singular adjective describing maqom ("place", H4725), specifying the type of location where washing must occur.

What the text says

The verse contains three clauses linked by asher ("that/who", H0834A), a relative particle that introduces conditions rather than naming a specific subject. The first clause — kol asher yiga bevsarah yiqdash — states that "all that touches in its flesh" will become holy; the subject is left open ("all/anyone"), and the verb yiqdash is qal, not a passive-marked form, though it functions to describe a resulting condition. The second and third clauses concern blood: va'asher yizeh midamah al habeged ("and that which spatters from its blood on the garment") is followed by a restatement, asher yizeh aleha ("that which spatters on it"), which re-identifies the garment before the main command is given.

The verb tekhabes breaks the pattern of impersonal 3rd-person constructions used earlier in the verse. It is 2nd person masculine singular, directly instructing "you" to wash the garment, rather than stating that the garment "will be washed" by an unnamed agent — a distinction the Hebrew grammar preserves through person and voice.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders tekhabes ("you will wash") as πλυθήσεται ("it will be washed"), a 3rd person passive form, removing the direct 2nd-person address present in the Hebrew. The Vulgate follows the same pattern with lavabitur ("it will be washed"), also 3rd person passive. Both the LXX and Vulgate additionally render yiqdash ("it will be holy") as a passive form — ἁγιασθήσεται and sanctificabitur respectively — which aligns with the resulting sense of the Hebrew but makes the passive voice explicit where the Hebrew qal form does not formally mark it as passive.