Deuteronomy 13:6
כִּי יְסִֽיתְךָ אָחִיךָ בֶן־אִמֶּךָ אֽוֹ־בִנְךָ אֽוֹ־בִתְּךָ אוֹ׀ אֵשֶׁת חֵיקֶךָ אוֹ רֵֽעֲךָ אֲשֶׁר כְּנַפְשְׁךָ בַּסֵּתֶר לֵאמֹר נֵֽלְכָה וְנַֽעַבְדָה אֱלֹהִים אֲחֵרִים אֲשֶׁר לֹא יָדַעְתָּ אַתָּה וַאֲבֹתֶֽיךָ׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
כִּ֣י יְסִֽיתְךָ֡ אָחִ֣יךָ בֶן־אִ֠מֶּךָ אֽוֹ־בִנְךָ֨ אֽוֹ־בִתְּךָ֜ א֣וֹ׀ אֵ֣שֶׁת חֵיקֶ֗ךָ א֧וֹ רֵֽעֲךָ֛ אֲשֶׁ֥ר כְּנַפְשְׁךָ֖ בַּסֵּ֣תֶר לֵאמֹ֑ר נֵֽלְכָ֗ה וְנַֽעַבְדָה֙ אֱלֹהִ֣ים אֲחֵרִ֔ים אֲשֶׁר֙ לֹ֣א יָדַ֔עְתָּ אַתָּ֖ה וַאֲבֹתֶֽיךָ׃
Ἐὰν δὲ παρακαλέσῃ ὁ ἀδελφός σου ἐκ πατρός σου ἢ ἐκ μητρός σου, ἢ ὁ υἱός σου ἢ ἡ θυγάτηρ σου ἢ ἡ γυνὴ ἡ ἐν κόλπῳ σου, ἢ φἰλος ἴσος τῆς ψυχῆς σου, λάθρα λέγων βαδίσωμεν καὶ λατρεύσωμεν θεοῖς ἑτέροις οὓς οὐκ ᾔδεις σὺ καὶ οἱ πατέρες σου,
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
Si tibi voluerit persuadere frater tuus filius matris tuæ, aut filius tuus vel filia, sive uxor quæ est in sinu tuo, aut amicus, quem diligis ut animam tuam, clam dicens: Eamus, et serviamus diis alienis, quos ignoras tu, et patres tui,
Si tu hermano, el hijo de tu madre, o tu hijo, o tu hija, o la mujer de tu seno, o tu amigo que es como tu propia alma, te seduce en secreto, diciendo: “Vamos a servir a otros dioses”, que no has conocido, tú ni tus padres,
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Cuando te incitare tu hermano, hijo de tu madre, ó tu hijo, ó tu hija, ó la mujer de tu seno, ó tu amigo que sea como tu alma, diciendo en secreto: Vamos y sirvamos á dioses ajenos, que ni tú ni tus padres conocisteis,
If your very own brother, or your son or daughter, or the wife you embrace, or your closest friend secretly entices you, saying, “ Let us go and worship other gods” ( which neither you nor your fathers have known,
✦ What the text says
Summary
Deuteronomy 13:6 opens the conditional clause of a law concerning secret incitement to worship other gods. It lists the closest possible relations — brother, son, daughter, wife, or intimate friend — as the potential source of this enticement, specifying that the invitation to "go and serve other gods" comes covertly and concerns deities unknown to the addressee and his ancestors.
Key words
- yesitkha ("he will entice you", H5496) — hiphil (causative) imperfect, meaning the subject actively causes another to be led astray; the imperfect marks it as a potential, ongoing/future scenario rather than a completed act.
- 'achikha ("your brother", H0251G) — construct form linked to ben-'immekha ("son of your mother", H1121A/H0517), specifying a maternal brother rather than brother in general.
- nafshekha ("your self/soul", H5315G) — construct noun used in the phrase "who is like your nefesh," describing the friend's closeness in terms of shared identity, not merely affection.
- basseter ("in secrecy", H5643A) — noun with prefixed preposition and article, marking the manner of the enticement as concealed action.
- yada'ta ("you have known", H3045) — qal perfect, denoting a completed state of prior acquaintance, contrasted with the "other gods" who are outside that known category.
What the text says
The verse is built as a long conditional protasis introduced by ki ("if", H3588A), with the verb yesitkha placed early to establish the potential act of enticement before naming who might commit it. The list of relations that follows is built entirely on construct chains ('achikha ben-'immekha, "your brother, son of your mother"; 'esheth cheikekha, "wife of your bosom"; re'akha... kenafshekha, "your friend... who is like your soul"), each construct phrase intensifying the closeness of the relationship being described. This construct-heavy structure creates a rhetorical escalation: from brother, to children, to wife, to a friend described through comparison to one's own nefesh.
The clause basseter le'mor ("in secrecy, saying") introduces reported speech that shifts into first-person plural forms, glossed here as "let us go" and "let us serve," expressing a proposed joint action. The final relative clause, 'asher lo' yada'ta 'attah va'avotekha ("which you have not known, you and your fathers"), uses the qal perfect yada'ta to frame the other gods as categorically outside the addressee's and ancestors' prior experience.
Differences between versions
The LXX renders the enticing verb as parakalesē ("urge/exhort"), a milder term than the Hebrew yesitkha ("entice," causative-hiphil, carrying a stronger connotation of leading astray); the Vulgate's persuadere ("to persuade") sits between these in tone. For the brother's identification, the Hebrew specifies "son of your mother" (maternal brother), while the LXX reads "from your father or from your mother," broadening the relation beyond the Hebrew's single maternal specification. The LXX also renders re'akha 'asher kenafshekha as "philos isos tēs psychēs sou" ("friend equal to your soul"), closely paralleling the Hebrew construct sense of nafshekha.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.