Deuteronomy 5:1
וַיִּקְרָא מֹשֶׁה אֶל־כָּל־יִשְׂרָאֵל וַיֹּאמֶר אֲלֵהֶם שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל אֶת־הַחֻקִּים וְאֶת־הַמִּשְׁפָּטִים אֲשֶׁר אָנֹכִי דֹּבֵר בְּאָזְנֵיכֶם הַיּוֹם וּלְמַדְתֶּם אֹתָם וּשְׁמַרְתֶּם לַעֲשֹׂתָֽם׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
וַיִּקְרָ֣א מֹשֶׁה֮ אֶל־כָּל־יִשְׂרָאֵל֒ וַיֹּ֣אמֶר אֲלֵהֶ֗ם שְׁמַ֤ע יִשְׂרָאֵל֙ אֶת־הַחֻקִּ֣ים וְאֶת־הַמִּשְׁפָּטִ֔ים אֲשֶׁ֧ר אָנֹכִ֛י דֹּבֵ֥ר בְּאָזְנֵיכֶ֖ם הַיּ֑וֹם וּלְמַדְתֶּ֣ם אֹתָ֔ם וּשְׁמַרְתֶּ֖ם לַעֲשֹׂתָֽם׃
Καὶ ἐκάλεσεν Μωυσῆς πάντα Ἰσραὴλ καὶ εἶπεν πρὸς αὐτούς Ἰσραὴλ τὰ δικαιώματα καὶ τὰ κρίματα ὅσα ἐγὼ λαλῶ ἐν τοῖς ὠσὶν ὑμῶν ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ ταύτῃ, καὶ μαθήσεσθε αὐτὰ καὶ φυλάξεσθε ποεῖν αὐτά.
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
Vocavitque Moyses omnem Israëlem, et dixit ad eum: Audi, Israël, cæremonias atque judicia, quæ ego loquor in auribus vestris hodie: discite ea, et opere complete.
Moisés llamó a todo Israel y les dijo: “Escucha, Israel, los estatutos y las ordenanzas que hoy les hablo en sus oídos, para que los aprendan y cuiden de cumplirlos.”
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Y LLAMÓ Moisés á todo Israel, y díjoles: Oye, Israel, los estatutos y derechos que yo pronuncio hoy en vuestros oídos: y aprendedlos, y guardadlos, para ponerlos por obra.
Then Moses summoned all Israel and said to them: Hear, O Israel, the statutes and ordinances that I declare in your hearing this day. Learn them and observe them carefully.
✦ What the text says
Summary
Moses gathers all Israel and calls on them to hear the statutes and judgments he is delivering to them that day. He instructs them to learn these laws and to take care to carry them out.
Key words
- shema ("hear", H8085G) — qal imperative, masculine singular: a direct command addressed collectively to "Israel" as one entity, not a request for information but a call to attention.
- chukkim ("statutes", H2706G) — masculine plural noun, marked with the definite article and object marker 'et: names one category of legal material Moses is about to transmit.
- mishpatim ("judgments", H4941G) — masculine plural noun, paired with chukkim via the conjunction ve ("and", H9002): the second category, joined to the first as objects of "hear."
- anokhi ("I", H0595) — independent personal pronoun preceding the participle dover; since Hebrew verb forms already indicate person, this separate pronoun adds emphasis to the speaker's identity.
- dover ("speaking", H1696G) — qal participle, masculine singular: describes an ongoing action ("the one speaking"), framing the statutes and judgments as being delivered in the present moment rather than as a completed past act.
What the text says
The verse opens with two narrative-vav verbs, vayyikra ("and he summoned", H7121G) and vayyomer ("and he said", H0559), which chain the action: Moses first calls Israel together, then speaks. The direct speech begins with the imperative shema ("hear", H8085G) followed immediately by the vocative Yisra'el ("Israel", H3478), a construction that addresses the nation as a single audience for the imperative.
The object of "hear" is a double phrase — chukkim ("statutes", H2706G) and mishpatim ("judgments", H4941G) — each introduced by the untranslated object marker 'et (H0853) and joined by ve ("and", H9002). These are further specified by a relative clause introduced by 'asher ("which", H0834A): "which I am speaking (dover, H1696G) in your ears ('azenei, H0241H, construct dual) this day." The participle dover combined with the emphatic pronoun anokhi ("I", H0595) stresses that Moses himself, in person, is the one currently uttering these laws.
The verse closes with two sequential perfects, lemadtem ("you will learn", H3925H) and shemartem ("you will take care", H8104J), both continuing the force of the initial imperative shema as a chain of obligations: hearing leads to learning, and learning leads to keeping, expressed finally through the infinitive la'asotam ("to observe them", H6213A) with the pronominal suffix "them" (H9038) referring back to the statutes and judgments.
Differences between versions
The Hebrew places an explicit imperative, shema ("hear", H8085G), directly before the vocative "Israel." The LXX text given (Swete) reads "καὶ εἶπεν πρὸς αὐτούς Ἰσραὴλ τὰ δικαιώματα..." — moving from "Israel" straight to "the statutes" without a Greek verb corresponding to shema. The Vulgate and later translations (BSB, RV1909, SBLIBRE) all preserve an explicit "Hear, Israel" equivalent, aligning with the Hebrew imperative structure rather than the LXX's construction here.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.