Leviticus 7:19

Summary

The verse states a rule about sacrificial meat (basar, H1320): if it touches anything unclean it may not be eaten and must be burned, while meat that has not been so contaminated may be eaten by anyone who is ritually pure. The verse pairs two opposite fates for the meat depending on contact with impurity.

Key words

• basar ("meat", H1320) — masculine singular noun, repeated three times, marking the subject of both clauses (the "meat" that is unfit vs. the "meat" that may be consumed).
• yigga' ("it will touch", H5060) — qal imperfect, active voice: the meat is grammatically the one performing the contact with the unclean object, not merely a passive recipient.
• ye'akhel ("it will be eaten", H0398) — niphal imperfect, passive: the negated form lo' ye'akhel ("it will not be eaten") frames the meat as something that undergoes (or here, does not undergo) the action of eating.
• yissaref ("it will be burned", H8313) — niphal imperfect, passive, parallel in form to ye'akhel, placing "not eaten" and "burned" as the two passive fates of the contaminated meat.
• yokhal ("he will eat", H0398) — qal imperfect, active voice, same root as ye'akhel but here describing the pure person as the active subject who eats, contrasting with the passive niphal used for the disqualified meat.

What the text says

The Hebrew builds two parallel structures around the noun basar ("meat", H1320). In the first, ha-basar is the subject of a relative clause introduced by 'asher ("which", H0834A): "the meat which yigga' ('it will touch', H5060) any tame' ('unclean [thing]', H2931)." The verb yigga' is qal, active — the text treats the meat itself as touching the unclean object, rather than describing someone touching the meat. The consequence is expressed with two niphal (passive) imperfects in sequence: lo' ye'akhel ("it will not be eaten") and ba-'esh yissaref ("it will be burned in the fire"). Both actions happen to the meat; it is not the agent of either.

The second half repeats ha-basar as a new subject, followed by kol tahor ("any pure [person]", H2889), and then yokhal basar ("he will eat meat"), using the qal (active) form of the same root H0398 used earlier in its niphal form. This shift from niphal to qal on the same verbal root marks a shift from the meat as passive object (when contaminated) to the pure person as active agent (when the meat is fit for consumption). The adjectives tame' ("unclean", H2931) and tahor ("pure", H2889) stand in direct opposition, dividing the verse into two mirrored halves built on contact/status and resulting action.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate ("Caro, quæ aliquid tetigerit immundum...") closely follows the Hebrew clause structure, preserving the meat as subject of "touching" and the passive verbs "non comedetur, sed comburetur." The Greek text supplied here (LXXSWETE) does not correspond to this Hebrew content; it speaks instead of "the one who offers a sacrifice of peace offering to the Lord" bringing "his [portion]," material that appears to belong to a different part of Leviticus 7 rather than to this verse's contrast between unclean-touched meat and meat eaten by the pure.