השופט שרק לעבירה, לא לנבדל.

It can mean both judge and referee. Hebrew uses the same word for both.

Here, the context is clearly sports because of עבירה and נבדל, so השופט means the referee. In a legal context, the same word would mean the judge.

שרק is the past tense, 3rd person masculine singular form of the verb לשרוק, meaning to whistle.

So literally it means whistled, and in a sports context it often means blew the whistle or called something.

For example:

• השופט שרק = the referee whistled
• If the referee were female: השופטת שרקה

Because with this verb, Hebrew often uses ל־ to mean for in the sense of whistled for.

So:

• שרק לעבירה = whistled for a foul
• שרק לנבדל = whistled for offside

English uses for, while Hebrew uses the prefix ל־.

Because the two nouns are being treated differently:

• לעבירה = ל־ + עבירה → for a foul
• לנבדל = ל־ + ה־ + נבדל → for the offside / for the offside call

In other words, עבירה is indefinite here, but נבדל is definite.

Also, in normal unpointed Hebrew spelling, לנבדל could look ambiguous, but here the context makes it clear that it means לַנבדל in pronunciation, not לְנבדל.

Because article usage does not always match between Hebrew and English.

In sports Hebrew, people often talk about calls as specific, recognizable events:

• הפנדל = the penalty
• הנבדל = the offside

So לא לנבדל sounds natural in Hebrew even though English would often simply say not for offside.

In soccer Hebrew, yes.

Historically, נבדל comes from the root בדל, related to separation, and it originally behaves more like an adjective or participle, something like separated. But in sports usage, it functions as a regular noun meaning offside.

So in this sentence, you should treat it as a standard soccer term.

No. עבירה is a general word meaning violation, offense, or infraction.

In sports, it often means foul.

So:

• in general Hebrew: עבירה can be a legal or moral offense
• in sports Hebrew: עבירה often means a foul

It is related to the root עבר, which has meanings connected to crossing or going beyond, and from there also transgressing.

Because Hebrew past tense is built into the verb itself.

שרק already means:

• whistled
• did whistle

So Hebrew does not need an extra helping verb here.

That is normal:

• הוא שרק = he whistled
• not something like he did whistle unless you want special emphasis in English

It creates the contrast: for a foul, not for offside.

This structure is very common in Hebrew:

• X, לא Y = X, not Y

So the sentence is contrasting two possible referee calls and saying which one it was.

Not strictly, but it is helpful.

The comma marks a pause and makes the contrast clearer:

• השופט שרק לעבירה, לא לנבדל.

Without the comma, the sentence would still be understandable in many contexts, especially in informal writing, but the comma makes it read more naturally.

A good approximate pronunciation is:

ha-sho-FET sha-RAK le-a-vey-RA, lo la-niv-DAL

A useful thing to notice:

• לעבירה sounds like le-...
• לנבדל sounds like la-... here, because it includes the definite article

So the contrast is not only grammatical, but also audible in pronunciation.