Deuteronomy 13:18

Summary

The verse states a condition: obedience to the voice of Yehovah results in the keeping of all his commandments and the doing of what is right in his eyes. It closes a passage (Deuteronomy 13) that frames covenant loyalty as "listening" to Yehovah's voice, expressed through concrete actions of keeping commandments and doing what is "right."

Key words

• ki ("for/if", H3588A) — a conditional or causal particle that opens the verse and establishes the dependent structure: everything following depends on this "if/when."
• tishma' ("you will listen", H8085H) — qal imperfect, 2nd masculine singular; the imperfect aspect allows an ongoing or future sense, i.e., a continued state of listening rather than a single completed act.
• lishmor ("to keep", H8104G) — qal infinitive with prefixed le ("to"), expressing purpose or result: listening leads "to keeping" the commandments.
• metzave ("commanding", H6680) — piel participle construct, masculine singular; the piel intensifies the action of Moses' speaker ("I") as the one actively commanding, not merely stating.
• yashar ("right", H3477G) — adjective with definite article ha (H9009), functioning as a substantive "the right [thing]," the object of the infinitive la'asot ("to do", H6213A).

What the text says

The sentence is built on a chain of infinitives governed by the initial conditional clause ki tishma' ("for/if you will listen"). The "listening" is not listening in the abstract but be-qol Yehovah Eloheikha — "to the voice of Yehovah your God" (H6963A, H3068G, H0430G) — using the construct noun qol ("voice of") followed by the divine name and title, structurally binding the sound of the command to its source. This listening is then defined through two purpose infinitives: lishmor ("to keep," H8104G) all his commandments and la'asot ("to do," H6213A) "the right" (ha-yashar, H3477G). Both infinitives share the preposition le ("to"), giving the sentence a layered goal structure: listening aims at keeping, and keeping aims at doing what is right.

The object phrase kol mitzvotav ("all his commandments," H3605 + H4687) is further specified by the relative clause asher anokhi metzavvekha ha-yom ("which I am commanding you today"), where the piel participle metzave (H6680) with the first-person pronoun anokhi (H0595) marks the speaker's direct, present-tense role in issuing the commandments. The final clause anchors the definition of "right" not to an abstract standard but be-'einei Yehovah Eloheikha — "in the eyes of Yehovah your God" (H5869H construct + divine name/title) — the dual-form noun 'einei ("eyes of") indicating the standard by which "right" is measured is Yehovah's own perspective, repeating the divine name and title exactly as in the opening clause, forming an inclusio around the verse.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders ha-yashar ("the right") as two adjectives, τὸ ἀρεστὸν καὶ τὸ καλὸν ("the pleasing and the good"), where the Hebrew has a single term. The Vulgate uses quod placitum est ("what is pleasing"), also a single expression, closer to the Hebrew's single adjective than the LXX's double rendering.