Deuteronomy 11:19

Summary

The verse instructs the addressee (plural "you") to teach the preceding words to their children, through the practice of speaking about them continually — while sitting at home, walking on the road, lying down, and rising up. It describes an ongoing, all-encompassing verbal transmission woven into daily life.

Key words

• li.mad.Tem ("you will teach", H3925G) — piel sequential perfect, plural "you"; the piel stem gives an intensive/causative sense ("cause to learn" = teach thoroughly), and the sequential perfect links this command to the preceding instructions as their continuation.
• da.Ber ("speaking", H1696G) — piel infinitive construct with prefixed le- ("by/in speaking"); expresses the means by which the teaching (li.mad.Tem) is carried out — teaching happens through the act of speaking.
• shiv.te.Kha ("your sitting", H3427) — qal infinitive construct with pronominal suffix "you" and prefixed be- ("when/in"); forms the first of four temporal infinitive clauses marking the situations in which the speaking occurs.
• lekh.te.Kha ("your walking", H1980I) — qal infinitive construct with suffix, prefixed u-ve- ("and when"); second temporal clause, paired with ba.De.rekh ("on the road", H1870L).
• ku.Me.kha ("your rising up", H6965B) — qal infinitive construct with suffix, prefixed u-ve- ("and when"); final term of the four-part merism (sitting/walking/lying down/rising up) that spans the full daily cycle.

What the text says

The sentence opens with a narrative ve- ("and", H9001) attached to li.mad.Tem ("you will teach", H3925G), continuing a sequence of prior instructions. The object is marked twice: 'o.Tam ("them", H0853 + suffix) referring back to the words previously mentioned, and 'et-be.nei.khem ("your children", H0853 + H1121A + H9026), the recipients of the teaching. The infinitive le-da.Ber ("by speaking", H1696G) specifies the method: teaching is accomplished through repeated verbal speech about "them" (ba.Ham, "in them", referring again to the words).

The remainder of the verse is built from four parallel infinitive-construct clauses, each introduced by the preposition be- ("when/in") or u-ve- ("and when"), each carrying a second-person masculine singular suffix (-Kha): be-shiv.te.Kha be-vei.te.Kha ("in your sitting in your house"), u-ve-lekh.te.Kha va-De.rekh ("and in your walking on the road"), u-ve-shakh.be.Kha ("and in your lying down"), u-ve-ku.Me.kha ("and in your rising up"). This shift from plural "you" (in li.mad.Tem) to singular "you" (in the infinitive clauses) is a grammatical feature of the Hebrew text: the command to teach is addressed collectively, while the four situational clauses address each individual. The four infinitives together form a merism — sitting/walking, lying down/rising — covering activities at home and away, at rest and in motion, spanning a full day.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders le-da.Ber ("by speaking") with the infinitive λαλεῖν ("to speak"), matching the Hebrew infinitival construction. The Vulgate instead uses meditentur ("that they may meditate/ponder"), a verb of reflection rather than of vocal speech, shifting the nuance from oral repetition (Hebrew da.Ber, "speaking") toward internal contemplation.