Leviticus 7:11

Summary

Leviticus 7:11 introduces a new legal section with a formal heading: "this is the torah" (instruction/procedure) governing the zevach ("sacrifice") called shelamim ("peace offering[s]"), specifically the one a person presents la-YHWH ("to Yehovah"). The verse functions as a superscription opening the following regulations.

Key words

• Zot ("this", H2063) — feminine demonstrative pointing forward to the content about to be introduced, a common formula opening legal instructions in Leviticus.
• toRat ("[the] legal [procedure] of", H8451) — construct form of torah, meaning it cannot stand alone; it grammatically requires the following noun zevach to complete its meaning ("the torah OF the sacrifice").
• Zevach ("[the] sacrifice of", H2077) — also in construct state, linking to ha-shelamim; the double construct chain (torat zevach ha-shelamim) creates a tightly bound technical phrase, "the procedure-of-the-sacrifice-of the peace-offerings."
• shelaMim ("peace offering[s]", H8002) — masculine plural noun with the definite article ha (H9009), naming the specific offering category being regulated.
• yakRiv ("someone will present", H7126H) — Hiphil (causative) imperfect verb: the subject causes an offering to draw near/be brought. The imperfect aspect gives the clause a general or future-oriented sense ("whenever one presents" or "that one shall present"), fitting legal/instructional style rather than narrating a single past event.

What the text says

The verse opens with ve-zot ("and this"), a formulaic construction used repeatedly in Leviticus to introduce a torah-section. What follows is a double construct chain: torat zevach ha-shelamim — literally "the-instruction-of the-sacrifice-of the-peace-offerings." Hebrew construct chains stack nouns without independent articles or prepositions on the inner terms; only the final noun (ha-shelamim) carries the definite article, and that definiteness carries back through the whole chain, so the sense is "the instruction of the sacrifice of the peace offerings" as a single definite unit, not "an instruction of a sacrifice."

The relative clause asher yakriv la-YHWH ("which someone will present to Yehovah") modifies zevach ha-shelamim, specifying that this is the offering type brought to Yehovah. The verb yakriv is Hiphil, meaning the human subject causes the offering to be brought near — the verb's causative stem itself encodes the ritual act of presentation, distinct from a plain "to come near." The imperfect form does not mark strict future tense but a generic/recurring situation typical of legal case law: "whenever/if one presents such an offering."

Differences between versions

The Hebrew, Vulgate ("Hæc est lex hostiæ pacificorum quæ offertur Domino"), and modern translations (BSB, RV1909, SBLIBRE) all match the Hebrew structure closely, rendering the construct chain as "law/lex of the sacrifice of peace offerings offered to the Lord/Yehovah." The Septuagint text supplied here, however, contains different content — it discusses a psyche ("soul/person") touching something unclean and eating from the thysia tou soteriou ("sacrifice of salvation/peace offering"), with a warning of being cut off from the people. This LXX passage corresponds to material found elsewhere in the Leviticus 7 sequence (concerning purity conditions for eating the offering) rather than to the Hebrew heading of verse 11 itself, so the two texts diverge in what they describe at this point.