Leviticus 7:30 - On the gender of worshipers

(The above rendering and its footnote come from the RJPS translation—an adaptation of the NJPS translation—as per a proposed correction in April 2024.)

Women are in view throughout this passage as worshipers, by virtue of both the non-specific language employed and the nature of the activities involved. See further my comment at 1:3.

To refer to worshipers, the Hebrew employs two forms of reference: the third-person singular in verse 29, yet the second-person plural in verse 32. As Adele Berlin pointed out (pers. comm., 2004), the text thereby distinguishes between the responsibility of the worshiper (to present one’s own offering: couched in the singular, vv. 29–30) and that of the community (to make sure that the priests receive certain portions: couched in the plural, v. 32).

As for translation into English, the NJPS rendering “his own hands … He” is nowadays construed as making male-only reference. There is no warrant for a gendered rendering.

For the first printing of RJPS, I recast this verse in the second person, considering that it was justified by the usage in v. 32. However, that similarity collapses the text’s distinction discussed above; in English, a reader cannot distinguish the singular “you” from the plural “you.” A third-person rendering is therefore best in this verse, contra NRSV.