Leviticus 7:18

Summary

This verse sets out the consequence of eating sacrificial meat from a zevach shelamim ("peace offering") on the third day after the sacrifice. The Hebrew states that such an offering becomes invalid, that no benefit accrues to the one who presented it, and that the meat itself is classified as pigul — a specific term for improperly consumed sacrificial flesh. The individual who eats it bears personal culpability.

Key words

• he'akhol / ye'akhel ("to be eaten" / "it will be eaten", H0398) — the same root appears twice: an infinitive absolute followed by an imperfect verb, a construction that intensifies the verbal idea, roughly "if it is indeed/actually eaten."
• pigul ("unclean meat", H6292) — a technical cultic noun with no ordinary secular meaning; it designates sacrificial meat rendered invalid by improper timing of consumption.
• yeratseh ("he will be accepted", H7521) — niphal imperfect, passive form describing the offering's status regarding acceptance, without naming an agent.
• yechashev ("it will be reckoned", H2803H) — niphal imperfect; passive construction paired with the preposition lo ("to him") indicating that no credit accrues to the offerer.
• tissa ("she will bear", H5375J) — qal imperfect, feminine form agreeing with nefesh ("person", H5315I, grammatically feminine), describing the eater's carrying of avonah ("her iniquity", H5771G).

What the text says

The verse opens with the doubled root construction he'akhol yе'akhel — infinitive absolute plus finite imperfect from H0398 ("to eat"). This grammatical pairing marks emphasis in Biblical Hebrew, underscoring that the condition concerns actual, realized eating on the third day, not a hypothetical or partial act. The apodosis follows with three passive (niphal) verbs in sequence — yeratseh ("will be accepted"), yechashev ("will be reckoned") — each lacking a named grammatical agent, which keeps focus on the offering's status rather than on who evaluates it. The noun pigul stands alone as a qal statement ("it will be pigul"), functioning as a technical classification rather than a descriptive adjective.

The final clause shifts to the feminine noun nefesh ("person") with a feminine participle ha-okhelet ("the one eating") and closes with the feminine verb tissa ("she will bear") governing the object avonah ("her iniquity", with feminine suffix agreeing with nefesh). This grammatical concord ties the consuming individual directly and grammatically to the consequence, using nasa ("to bear/carry", H5375J) with the abstract noun for guilt/iniquity as its object.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate renders the doubled Hebrew construction (he'akhol ye'akhel) with a single verb, "comederit" ("shall have eaten"), not reproducing the intensifying infinitive absolute found in the Hebrew. The LXX text supplied here ("καὶ ἐλάλησεν κύριος πρὸς Μωυσῆν λέγων" — "and the Lord spoke to Moses, saying") does not correspond in content to this Hebrew verse; it reflects a different verse or a versification difference between the Septuagint and the Masoretic Text for this chapter, since it contains no reference to the peace offering, the third day, or pigul.