Deuteronomy 11:4

Summary

The verse continues a relative clause describing what Yehovah did to the Egyptian army — its horses and chariotry — when he caused the waters of the "sea of reeds" to flow over them while they pursued the Israelites. The clause ends by stating that Yehovah destroyed them, "until this day."

Key words

• hetzif ("he caused to flow", H6687) — hiphil (causative) perfect: the verb form is causative, meaning the subject (Yehovah, understood from context) actively made the water move over the Egyptians, rather than the water simply flowing on its own.
• yam-suf (yam H3220G "sea of," suf H5488G "reed") — a construct chain literally "sea of reed[s]," the standard Hebrew designation for the body of water in question.
• radefam ("their pursuing", H7291) — qal infinitive with pronominal suffix, governed by the preposition be- ("when/in"), forming a temporal clause: "in their pursuing," i.e., "while they were pursuing."
• ye'abbedem ("and he destroyed them", H0006) — piel (intensive) verb with narrative vav (H9001), marking the next event in the narrative sequence and intensifying the action of destruction.
• Yehovah (H3068G) — the subject of the destroying verb, placed after the verb, which is a normal Hebrew word order (verb–subject) in narrative clauses.

What the text says

The verse is grammatically a continuation of a relative clause begun with va'asher ("and which," H0834A), referring back to an antecedent (the deeds of Yehovah described earlier in the passage). Within this, a second relative clause is introduced by another instance of 'asher ("that/who," H0834A), this time governing the verb hetzif, a hiphil form indicating that the subject caused the sea's water to flow or surge over the Egyptians. The temporal clause beradefam achareikhem ("when they pursued after you") uses an infinitive construct with a suffixed pronoun rather than a finite verb, a common Hebrew way of expressing "while/when they did X" without needing a separate conjugated verb and subject.

The final clause, introduced by the narrative vav on vaya'abbedem, shifts from the relative-clause description into a main narrative statement: "and Yehovah destroyed them." The piel stem here conveys a more thorough or intensive destruction than the simple (qal) stem would. The temporal phrase 'ad hayom hazeh ("until this day," H5704/H3117L/H2088) closes the verse, marking the destruction as a state continuing to the time of speaking.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew yam-suf ("sea of reed[s]") is rendered by the LXX as thalassēs tēs erythras ("the Red Sea") and by the Vulgate as maris Rubri ("of the Red Sea"), both using a color-based name rather than the literal "reed" terminology found in the Hebrew.