Deuteronomy 11:18
וְשַׂמְתֶּם אֶת־דְּבָרַי אֵלֶּה עַל־לְבַבְכֶם וְעַֽל־נַפְשְׁכֶם וּקְשַׁרְתֶּם אֹתָם לְאוֹת עַל־יֶדְכֶם וְהָיוּ לְטוֹטָפֹת בֵּין עֵינֵיכֶֽם׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
וְשַׂמְתֶּם֙ אֶת־דְּבָרַ֣י אֵ֔לֶּה עַל־לְבַבְכֶ֖ם וְעַֽל־נַפְשְׁכֶ֑ם וּקְשַׁרְתֶּ֨ם אֹתָ֤ם לְאוֹת֙ עַל־יֶדְכֶ֔ם וְהָי֥וּ לְטוֹטָפֹ֖ת בֵּ֥ין עֵינֵיכֶֽם׃
καὶ ἐμβαλεῖτε τὰ ῥήματα ταῦτα εἰς τὴν καρδίαν ὑμῶν καὶ εἰς τὴν ψυχὴν ὑμῶν, καὶ ἀφάψετε αὐτὰ εἰς σημεῖον ἐπὶ τῆς χειρὸς ὑμῶν, καὶ ἔσται ἀσάλευτον πρὸ ὀφθαλμῶν ὑμῶν·
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
Ponite hæc verba mea in cordibus et in animis vestris, et suspendite ea pro signo in manibus, et inter oculos vestros collocate.
Por lo tanto, guardarán estas palabras mías en su corazón y en su alma. Las atarán como señal en su mano, y serán como frontales entre sus ojos.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Por tanto, pondréis estas mis palabras en vuestro corazón y en vuestra alma, y las ataréis por señal en vuestra mano, y serán por frontales entre vuestros ojos.
Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as reminders on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.
✦ What the text says
Summary
Deuteronomy 11:18 instructs the audience to place these specific words within themselves — on heart and being — and to tie them physically as a sign on the hand and as markings between the eyes. The verse uses three sequential actions: placing, tying, and becoming/being.
Key words
- sam.Tem ("you will put", H7760H) — qal sequential perfect, 2nd person masculine plural; continues a chain of instructions, indicating an action to be carried out following what precedes.
- le.vav.Khem ("your heart", H3824 + H9026) — construct noun with pronominal suffix; "heart" here is singular in Hebrew (not plural), construct form linking it to "your."
- naf.she.Khem ("your being", H5315G + H9026) — construct singular noun with suffix; often rendered "soul," but the gloss given is "being," paired with "heart" via the preposition 'al- ("on", H5921A).
- ke.shar.Tem ("you will tie", H7194) — qal sequential perfect, 2nd person masculine plural; the second action in the sequence, introducing physical binding.
- to.ta.Fot ("marks", H2903) — feminine plural noun; a term with no exact modern equivalent, describing objects or markings placed between the eyes.
What the text says
The verse is built on three sequential perfect verbs joined by the narrative vav (H9001): sam.Tem ("you will put"), ke.shar.Tem ("you will tie"), and ha.Yu ("they will be"). This chain structure means each action follows logically from the prior instruction, producing a three-step sequence: place the words internally, bind them externally as a sign, and let them exist as markings.
The internal placement uses two paired prepositional phrases, 'al-le.vav.Khem ("on your heart") and ve.'al-naf.she.Khem ("and on your being"), both governed by 'al- ("on", H5921A), suggesting the words are set "upon" these two aspects of the person rather than merely contained "in" them, as some translations render it.
The external actions involve 'et- (H0853), the untranslated direct object marker, twice marking "these words" (de.va.Rai 'Elleh) and "them" ('oTam) as the grammatical objects being handled. The physical placement is specified as le.'ot ("for a sign", H0226H) 'al-yed.Khem ("on your hand", H3027G) and le.tota.Fot ("for marks", H2903) bein 'einei.Khem ("between your eyes", H5869A), with bein (H0996G) marking the dual location between the two eyes.
Differences between versions
The LXX renders tota.Fot ("marks", H2903) as ἀσάλευτον ("unshaken/immovable"), describing a quality rather than an object, and locates it πρὸ ὀφθαλμῶν ("before the eyes") rather than "between" them as in the Hebrew bein 'einei.Khem. The Vulgate uses collocate ("place/arrange") for the final verb, differing from the Hebrew's ha.Yu ("they will be", H1961), which describes the marks' resulting state rather than an act of arranging them.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.