Deuteronomy 12:7

וַאֲכַלְתֶּם־שָׁם לִפְנֵי יְהוָה אֱלֹֽהֵיכֶם וּשְׂמַחְתֶּם בְּכֹל מִשְׁלַח יֶדְכֶם אַתֶּם וּבָתֵּיכֶם אֲשֶׁר בֵּֽרַכְךָ יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶֽיךָ׃

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The same verse in five languages

Hebrew

וַאֲכַלְתֶּם־שָׁ֗ם לִפְנֵי֙ יְהוָ֣ה אֱלֹֽהֵיכֶ֔ם וּשְׂמַחְתֶּ֗ם בְּכֹל֙ מִשְׁלַ֣ח יֶדְכֶ֔ם אַתֶּ֖ם וּבָתֵּיכֶ֑ם אֲשֶׁ֥ר בֵּֽרַכְךָ֖ יְהוָ֥ה אֱלֹהֶֽיךָ׃

Greek (Septuagint)

καὶ φάγεσθε ἐκεῖ ἐναντίον κυρίου τοῦ θεοῦ ὑμῶν, καὶ εὐφρανθήσεσθε ἐπὶ πᾶσιν οὗ ἂν τὴν χεῖρα ἐπιβάλητε, ὑμεῖς καὶ οἱ οἶκοι ὑμῶν, καθότι εὐλόγησέν σε Κύριος ὁ θεός σου.

Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0

Latin (Vulgate)

Et comedetis ibi in conspectu Domini Dei vestri: ac lætabimini in cunctis, ad quæ miseritis manum vos et domus vestræ, in quibus benedixerit vobis Dominus Deus vester.

Spanish

Allí comerán delante de Yehová su Dios, y se alegrarán de todo lo que hagan, ustedes y sus familias, en lo que Yehová su Dios los ha bendecido.

Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)

Y comeréis allí delante de Jehová vuestro Dios, y os alegraréis, vosotros y vuestras familias, en toda obra de vuestras manos en que Jehová tu Dios te hubiere bendecido.

English

There, in the presence of the LORD your God, you and your households shall eat and rejoice in all you do, because the LORD your God has blessed you.

What the text says

Summary

The verse instructs the people to eat before Yehovah and to rejoice, together with their households, in every undertaking their hands have accomplished, because Yehovah their God has blessed them. It closes a sequence of ritual instructions using sequential perfect verbs that continue directives from the preceding verses.

Key words

  • 'a.khal.tem ("you will eat", H0398) — qal sequential perfect, 2nd person masculine plural, continuing a chain of commands begun earlier in the passage.
  • li.f.nei ("before", from H9005 + H6440) — preposition + construct noun "face of," an idiom meaning "in the presence of."
  • mish.Lach yed.khem ("undertaking of your hand", H4916 + H3027) — a construct chain literally "the sending-forth of your hand," an idiom for activity or work accomplished.
  • se.mach.Tem ("you will rejoice", H8055) — qal sequential perfect, 2nd person masculine plural, paired with 'a.khal.tem as a twin action.
  • be.rakh ("he has blessed", H1288) — piel perfect, intensive stem, 3rd person masculine singular, describing a completed divine action.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built on two sequential perfect verbs, 'a.khal.tem ("you will eat") and se.mach.Tem ("you will rejoice"), both 2nd person masculine plural, which continue a series of instructions rather than standing as independent statements — this grammatical form (vav + perfect after prior imperfect/perfect forms) signals ongoing narrative instruction rather than a simple future. The phrase li.f.nei Yehovah 'Elohei.khem ("before Yehovah your God") uses the construct noun "face of" idiomatically to mean "in the presence of."

The object of rejoicing is expressed through the construct chain be.khol mish.Lach yed.khem ("in all the undertaking of your hand"), an idiom denoting the produce or result of labor, not a literal "hand-sending." The clause "you and your households" ('a.Tem u.va.tei.khem) specifies who shares in this rejoicing, reinforcing the plural addressees already marked by the verb suffixes.

Toward the end, the verb be.rakh ("he has blessed") appears in the piel perfect, a stem often carrying intensive nuance, describing a completed act by Yehovah. Notably, this final clause shifts from the plural suffixes used earlier ('Elohei.khem, "your God" plural) to singular suffixes (be.rakh.kha, "he has blessed you" singular; 'Elohei.kha, "your God" singular), a grammatical shift internal to the Hebrew text itself.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate renders the closing clause with "vobis" (plural, "blessed you all"), while the Hebrew be.rakh.kha and the LXX εὐλόγησέν σε both use singular forms. The BSB translates mish.Lach yed.khem broadly as "all you do," while the RV1909 preserves the hand-idiom more literally as "toda obra de vuestras manos" ("all the work of your hands").

This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.