Leviticus 7:24

Summary

The verse addresses two categories of forbidden meat sources — the fat of a nevelah ("carcass", H5038) and the fat of a terefah ("torn animal", H2966) — permitting their fat for practical use while explicitly prohibiting their consumption as food.

Key words

• nevelah ("carcass", H5038) — feminine singular noun denoting an animal that died naturally, distinct from one killed by predation.
• terefah ("torn animal", H2966) — feminine singular noun for an animal torn or killed by a wild beast.
• ye'aseh ("it will be used", H6213A) — niphal (passive) imperfect, indicating the fat's fate is determined by an unstated agent: "it will be made/used" rather than "someone will use it."
• 'akhol ("certainly ", H0398) — qal infinitive absolute, placed before the finite verb to intensify the following negation.
• tokhlu ("you must eat", H0398) — qal imperfect, second person masculine plural, paired with the infinitive absolute to form an emphatic prohibition: "you shall absolutely not eat."

What the text says

The sentence divides into two clauses joined by ve ("and", H9002). The first clause names the fat of a nevelah and the fat of a terefah as its subject, followed by the niphal verb ye'aseh: because niphal marks the passive/reflexive voice, the fat itself is not the one acting — it "will be made" or "will be used" le-khol melakhah ("for any work", H4399/H3605), without specifying who performs the use. This grammatical passivity keeps the focus on the material's permitted application rather than on human agents.

The second clause shifts to a direct prohibition using the infinitive absolute construction: 'akhol lo' tokhluhu — literally "eating, you shall not eat it." In Biblical Hebrew this doubling of the verb root (infinitive absolute + finite imperfect) does not add a second action but intensifies the single prohibition, functioning similarly to "you must certainly not eat it." The suffix hu ("it", H9033) attached to the verb refers back to the fat described in the first clause, tying the two statements together as one continuous instruction: usable for work, absolutely not usable as food.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate text supplied ("Adipem cadaveris morticini... habebitis in varios usus") renders the first clause about permitted use but does not include a corresponding clause prohibiting consumption, unlike the Hebrew's emphatic 'akhol lo' tokhluhu. The Greek (LXX Swete) text given for this reference describes a different subject matter altogether — offerings, a "shoulder" (βραχίονα), and priestly portions for Aaron and his sons — showing no correspondence to the Hebrew content of fat from carcasses or torn animals in this verse.