Deuteronomy 14:24

Summary

The verse presents a conditional scenario: if the journey to the sanctuary is too long and the traveler cannot carry the tithe, because the place Yehovah has chosen for his name is too distant, this applies specifically when Yehovah has blessed the person (implying abundant produce to transport). This verse continues the topic of the tithe from the preceding context, addressing the practical problem of distance.

Key words

• yir.Beh ("it will be too great", H7235A) — qal imperfect, describing a future/hypothetical condition of the "way" being excessive in length.
• tu.Khal ("you will be able", H3201) — qal imperfect negated by lo' ("not", H3808), expressing incapacity to perform the following infinitive action.
• se.'e.T ("to carry", H5375H) — qal infinitive with pronominal suffix o ("it", H9033), naming the specific action rendered impossible.
• yir.Chak ("it will be too far", H7368) — qal imperfect, parallel in form to yir.Beh, restating the distance problem from the angle of the "place" rather than the "way".
• yiv.Char ("he will choose", H0977) — qal imperfect, describing Yehovah's selection of the location, introduced by the relative particle 'a.Sher ("where", H0834A).

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built from three linked conditional clauses, each introduced by khi / ki (H3588A), meaning "if" or "that/for." The first clause states that "the way" (ha.Derekh, H1870L) "will be too great" (yir.Beh, H7235A) "for you" (mi.me.Kha, H4480A + H9031). The second clause, introduced again by ki, gives the consequence: "you will not be able" (lo' tu.Khal) "to carry it" (se.'e.T...o), the suffix o referring back to an object mentioned earlier in the wider passage (the tithe). The third clause, also introduced by ki, restates the distance problem from a different grammatical subject: "the place" (ha.ma.Kom, H4725) itself "will be far" (yir.Chak, H7368) "from you."

The relative clause 'a.Sher yiv.Char Yehovah 'e.lo.Hei.kha ("where Yehovah your God will choose") modifies "the place," using the construct form 'e.lo.Hei.kha ("God of you," H0430G + H9021) to express possession — "your God." The purpose clause la.Sum she.mo Sham ("to put his name there") uses the infinitive Sum (H7760A) governed by the preposition la (H9005), with she.mo ("his name," H8034) in construct with the suffix o. The final clause shifts to the piel verb ye.va.rekh.kha ("he will bless you," H1288), the intensive stem marking Yehovah as the active agent of blessing, syntactically dependent on the preceding ki ("for/when").

Differences between versions

The Vulgate (VULCLEM) restructures the clause order, placing "the way" (via) and "the place" (locus) together before the blessing clause, and adds "all these things" (hæc cuncta) as the object of "carry" — not explicit in the Hebrew, where the object is only the suffix o ("it"). The Septuagint (LXXSWETE) as given here corresponds to a different part of the surrounding passage (selling produce and going to the place), not a direct match to the Hebrew of this verse's wording about "the way being too great." The BSB and SBLIBRE translations render yir.Beh ("too great") and yir.Chak ("too far") together as a single English/Spanish concept of "distance," combining two separate Hebrew verbs into one descriptive phrase.