Leviticus 6:5

Summary

Leviticus 6:5 describes the required restitution when a person has sworn a false oath (sheker, H8267) regarding property. The offender must repay the principal amount in full, add a fifth to it, and hand it over to its rightful owner on the day his guilt is established.

Key words

• yishava' ("he will swear an oath", H7650) — niphal imperfect, giving the verb a reflexive/passive nuance ("swear himself an oath"); it opens the conditional clause defining the offense.
• sheker ("falsehood", H8267) — masculine singular noun marking the oath as false; paired with the preposition la- ("to/in"), it specifies the manner of the swearing.
• shillam ("he will repay", H7999) — piel perfect, an intensive stem conveying full, complete repayment rather than a partial or simple act of giving.
• rosh ("sum/head", H7218) — construct noun denoting the principal amount owed, distinct from the added penalty.
• chamishitav ("its fifths", H2549) — feminine singular construct ordinal number with suffix, indicating the additional 20% penalty added to the principal.

What the text says

The verse continues a conditional structure begun with 'o mikkol 'asher yishava' 'alayv lasheker — "or from all that he swears upon it falsely." The niphal form of yishava' frames the oath as something the subject enacts upon himself, setting up the legal condition. The consequence is introduced by the sequential perfect veshillam ("and he will repay"), which continues the modal force of the preceding clause rather than functioning as a simple past. The piel stem of shillam intensifies the act of repayment, distinguishing it from the ordinary qal verb yitennu ("he will give it") used later for the act of handing the item to its owner.

The text specifies two components of repayment: berosho ("in its head/sum," H7218), the original principal, and vachamishitav ("and its fifths," H2549), an additional fifth added as penalty, introduced by the hiphil jussive yosef ("let him add," H3254H), a causative form expressing an imposed obligation. The recipient is marked by the relative clause la'asher hu' lo ("to the one to whom it [belongs]"), before the qal imperfect yitennu completes the transaction. The timing is fixed beyom 'ashmato ("on the day of his guilt," H0819).

Differences between versions

The Hebrew closes with beyom 'ashmato, "on the day of his guilt." The LXX renders this as ᾗ ἡμέρᾳ ἐλεγχθῇ, "the day he is convicted/exposed," shifting the temporal marker from an internal state (guilt) to an external legal event (conviction). The Vulgate omits any equivalent temporal clause entirely, ending instead on the recipient ("cui damnum intulerat"). The SBLIBRE translation renders the same phrase as "the day he presents his guilt offering," associating 'ashmato with a sacrificial offering rather than a general state of guilt, while the BSB gives "the day he acknowledges his guilt," an interpretive rendering emphasizing self-recognition not explicit in the Hebrew noun form.