Leviticus 7:27

Summary

The verse establishes that any person (nefesh, H5315) who eats blood (dam, H1818) will be cut off (nikhretah, H3772I) from among their kinspeople ('ammeiha, H5971B). It is a conditional legal statement: the relative clause defines the offender, and the main clause states the consequence.

Key words

• Nefesh ("person/soul", H5315I) — feminine singular noun, functioning here as the grammatical subject that will be judged; the same word recurs at the end of the verse (H5315J) with the definite article to refer back to the same subject.
• 'Asher ("who/that", H0834A) — relative particle introducing the condition that defines which nefesh is meant: the one that eats blood.
• Tokhal ("she will eat", H0398) — qal imperfect, third person feminine, agreeing with nefesh; the imperfect aspect marks this as a general, repeatable or future action rather than a single completed event.
• Nikhretah ("she will be cut off", H3772I) — niphal (passive) sequential perfect, third feminine; the passive voice removes the grammatical agent of the cutting-off, and the sequential perfect links this clause to the preceding imperfect as the resulting consequence.
• 'Ammeiha ("her kinspeople", H5971B + H9024) — masculine plural noun in construct with a feminine possessive suffix referring back to nefesh; the plural form indicates a group of relations or people from which the nefesh is severed.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built in two balanced halves joined by the narrative vav (H9001). The first half sets the condition using kol ("every/any", H3605) twice — once governing nefesh and once governing dam — producing the structure "any person who eats any blood." This double use of kol gives the statement a comprehensive, unrestricted scope: no exception is grammatically marked. The verb tokhal is in the qal imperfect, which in legal or casuistic formulations of this type typically expresses a hypothetical or repeatable action ("whoever eats/should eat"), not a single historical event.

The second half shifts to a niphal sequential perfect, nikhretah, which grammatically marks the consequence following from the condition. The niphal stem indicates that the subject undergoes the action rather than performing it, and no human or divine agent of the "cutting off" is specified in the verse itself. The subject is repeated with the definite article and demonstrative pronoun (ha-nefesh ha-hiv', "that same person," H5315J + H1931), explicitly identifying it as the same nefesh introduced in the first clause. The final phrase, me-'ammeiha ("from her kinspeople"), uses a construct plural noun with a feminine suffix agreeing with nefesh, describing separation from a collective body of relations.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate (Omnis anima, quæ ederit sanguinem, peribit de populis suis) renders nikhretah with peribit ("will perish"), which conveys a stronger notion of destruction than the Hebrew niphal "will be cut off," a passive expression without further specification of the disciplinary act. The Greek text supplied here (LXXSWETE) does not correspond lexically to this Hebrew verse; it discusses "the law of the whole burnt offerings," indicating a mismatch in the provided LXX excerpt rather than a translational divergence proper.