Deuteronomy 13:2
וּבָא הָאוֹת וְהַמּוֹפֵת אֲשֶׁר־דִּבֶּר אֵלֶיךָ לֵאמֹר נֵֽלְכָה אַחֲרֵי אֱלֹהִים אֲחֵרִים אֲשֶׁר לֹֽא־יְדַעְתָּם וְנָֽעָבְדֵֽם׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
וּבָ֤א הָאוֹת֙ וְהַמּוֹפֵ֔ת אֲשֶׁר־דִּבֶּ֥ר אֵלֶ֖יךָ לֵאמֹ֑ר נֵֽלְכָ֞ה אַחֲרֵ֨י אֱלֹהִ֧ים אֲחֵרִ֛ים אֲשֶׁ֥ר לֹֽא־יְדַעְתָּ֖ם וְנָֽעָבְדֵֽם׃
καὶ ἔλθῃ τὸ σημεῖον ἢ τὸ τέρας ὃ ἐλάλησεν πρὸς σὲ λέγων Πορευθὼμεν καὶ λατρεύσωμεν θεοῖς ἑτέροις οὓς οὐκ οἴδατε·
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
et evenerit quod locutus est, et dixerit tibi: Eamus, et sequamur deos alienos quos ignoras, et serviamus eis:
y se realiza la señal o el prodigio del que les ha hablado, diciendo: “Vayamos en pos de otros dioses” (que no han conocido) “y sirvámosles”,
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Y acaeciere la señal ó prodigio que él te dijo, diciendo: Vamos en pos de dioses ajenos, que no conociste, y sirvámosles;
and if the sign or wonder he has spoken to you comes about, but he says, “ Let us follow other gods ( which you have not known) and let us worship them,”
✦ What the text says
Summary
The verse describes a conditional scenario: if the sign or wonder that had been spoken about actually occurs, and the person who spoke it says to follow and serve other gods. It sets up the protasis of a legal case continued from the preceding verse, ending in a direct quotation containing a proposal to abandon Yehovah for unfamiliar deities.
Key words
- 'ot ("sign", H0226G) — feminine singular noun with the definite article ha (H9009), marking it as a specific, previously mentioned sign rather than any sign in general.
- mofet ("wonder", H4159) — parallel definite noun paired with 'ot by the conjunction ve (H9002), forming a fixed two-part expression.
- nelekhah ("let us walk", H1980N) — cohortative form of halakh, expressing a first-person plural proposal ("let us go/follow").
- na'avedem ("let us be enticed to serve", H5647H) — tagged in the data as hophal (causative-passive) imperfect with vav, rather than a simple active cohortative.
- yeda'ta ("you have known", H3045) — qal perfect, second person masculine, negated by lo' (H3808), describing a state never previously experienced.
What the text says
The clause opens with the narrative vav on ba ("it will come", H0935G), a sequential perfect that ties this verse to the conditional setup of the preceding one: something is described as coming to pass. The subject of that verb is the compound phrase ha-'ot ve-ha-mofet, "the sign and the wonder," both nouns definite and joined by ve rather than an alternative particle, presenting them as a linked pair rather than two separate options. The relative particle 'asher (H0834A) introduces two subordinate clauses: one describing what "he spoke" (dibber, piel perfect) to the addressee, and another describing gods "which you have not known" (lo' yeda'tam). Inside the quotation, two verbs express the proposal: nelekhah, a straightforward cohortative "let us go/follow," and na'avedem, which the grammatical tagging identifies as hophal — a causative-passive stem — yielding a nuance of "let us be brought/enticed to serve them" rather than a simple active "let us serve."
Differences between versions
The LXX uses ἢ ("or") between "sign" and "wonder," where the Hebrew joins them with the conjunction ve ("and"). For the final verb, the LXX renders λατρεύσωμεν and the Vulgate serviamus, both active "let us serve/worship," while the Hebrew form na'avedem is grammatically marked in the data as hophal, a causative-passive construction. Modern translations (BSB "let us worship," RV1909 "sirvámosles," SBLIBRE "sirvámosles") likewise render the verb as straightforwardly active, not reflecting the passive-causative nuance indicated in the Hebrew morphological tagging.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.