Deuteronomy 1:45
וַתָּשֻׁבוּ וַתִּבְכּוּ לִפְנֵי יְהוָה וְלֹֽא־שָׁמַע יְהוָה בְּקֹלְכֶם וְלֹא הֶאֱזִין אֲלֵיכֶֽם׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
וַתָּשֻׁ֥בוּ וַתִּבְכּ֖וּ לִפְנֵ֣י יְהוָ֑ה וְלֹֽא־שָׁמַ֤ע יְהוָה֙ בְּקֹ֣לְכֶ֔ם וְלֹ֥א הֶאֱזִ֖ין אֲלֵיכֶֽם׃
καὶ καθίσαντες ἐκλαίετε ἔναντι Τυροῦ τοῦ θεοῦ ἡμῶν, καὶ οὐκ εἰσήκουσεν κύριος τῆς φωνῆς ὑμῶν οὐδὲ προσέσχεν ὑμῖν.
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
Cumque reversi ploraretis coram Domino, non audivit vos, nec voci vestræ voluit acquiescere.
Volvieron y lloraron delante de Yehová, pero Yehová no escuchó su voz, ni volvió su oído hacia ustedes.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Y volvisteis, y llorasteis delante de Jehová; pero Jehová no escuchó vuestra voz, ni os prestó oído.
And you returned and wept before the LORD, but He would not listen to your voice or give ear to you.
✦ What the text says
Summary
The verse describes the people returning and weeping before Yehovah after a military defeat, but states that Yehovah did not listen to their voice nor pay attention to them. It emphasizes divine refusal to respond despite the people's expression of grief.
Key words
- ta.Shu.vu ("you returned", H7725) — qal narrative form, 2nd person masculine plural, continuing the sequence of past events ("and then you returned").
- tiv.Ku ("you wept", H1058) — qal narrative form, same subject, chained to the previous verb by the narrative vav, showing weeping as the next action after returning.
- li.f.Nei ("before", H6440) — construct plural noun with preposition li (H9005), literally "to the face of," indicating the people's position in relation to Yehovah.
- sha.Ma' ("he listened", H8085) — qal perfect, 3rd masculine singular, marking a completed action negated by lo' (H3808): Yehovah's non-listening.
- he.'e.Zin ("he gave ear", H0238) — hiphil perfect, causative form, 3rd masculine singular, intensifying the idea of attentive listening, also negated.
What the text says
The verse opens with two narrative-chained verbs, ta.Shu.vu ("you returned", H7725) and tiv.Ku ("you wept", H1058), both in the qal stem and second person plural, describing sequential actions performed by the people. The phrase li.f.Nei Yehovah ("before Yehovah", H6440 + H3068) situates this weeping in a spatial or ritual sense, "before the face of" Yehovah, using the construct noun panim in its plural construct form.
The second half of the verse shifts to describe Yehovah's response through two negated perfect verbs: lo' sha.Ma' ("he did not listen", H3808 + H8085) and lo' he.'e.Zin ("he did not give ear", H3808 + H0238). The second verb is in the hiphil (causative) stem, which intensifies the sense of attentive listening compared to the simple qal sha.Ma'. The repetition of negation with two near-synonymous verbs for "hearing" — one simple, one causative — creates emphasis through parallelism, reinforcing that Yehovah's non-response was total: no basic hearing (sha.Ma') and no active attentiveness (he.'e.Zin).
Differences between versions
The Septuagint (LXXSWETE) renders the opening differently, using καθίσαντες ("having sat") instead of a verb corresponding to ta.Shu.vu ("you returned", H7725), and phrases the location as ἔναντι Τυροῦ τοῦ θεοῦ ἡμῶν ("before Tyrus our god"), which diverges from the Hebrew li.f.Nei Yehovah ("before Yehovah"). The Vulgate (VULCLEM) uses reversi ("having returned") and ploraretis ("you were weeping") in a subordinate clause structure, differing syntactically from the Hebrew's two independent narrative verbs. The Vulgate also condenses "he did not listen... nor give ear" into "non audivit... nec voci vestrae voluit acquiescere," adding the verb voluit ("he was willing"), a nuance not present in the Hebrew's two-verb parallelism.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.