Deuteronomy 14:29

Summary

Deuteronomy 14:29 instructs that the Levite — who has no landed portion or inheritance of his own — along with the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow living within the community's towns, are to come, eat, and be satisfied from the provisions described in the preceding verses. The stated purpose is that Yehovah the God of the addressee will bless him in every undertaking of his hands.

Key words

• Va' ("he will come", H0935G) — qal sequential perfect, continuing the narrative chain; the Levite is the grammatical subject who "comes."
• 'ein ("not", H0369) — construct noun expressing negation, forming the phrase "there is no portion to him," explaining the Levite's landless status.
• 'a.khe.Lu ("they will eat", H0398) and sa.Ve.'u ("they will be satisfied", H7646) — both qal sequential perfects, plural, continuing the same narrative chain begun with Va', showing a series of consequential actions.
• ye.va.rekh. ("he may bless", H1288) — piel jussive, expressing purpose/result ("so that he may bless"), governed by the particle le.Ma.'an ("so that", H4616).
• ta.'a.Seh ("you will do", H6213A) — qal imperfect, denoting ongoing or future action, closing the verse with a relative clause about "the work of your hand which you will do."

What the text says

The verse opens with the narrative vav on Va' ("he will come", H0935G), linking it to the preceding legal material as a continuing sequence of prescribed actions rather than an isolated command. The subject is ha.Le.vi ("the Levite", H3881), whose situation is explained by a causal clause introduced by ki ("for", H3588A): 'ein-lo chelek ve-nachalah 'immakh — "there is no portion or inheritance to him with you." This construct-plus-suffix structure ('ein + preposition le + suffix o) is a standard Hebrew way of expressing possession or its absence, literally "there is not to him."

Three additional categories are added by repeated conjunctions with the definite article — ha.ger ("the sojourner", H1616), ha.yatom ("the fatherless one", H3490), and ha.'almanah ("the widow", H0490) — each joined by ve ("and", H9002), producing a list bound together as recipients of the same action. A relative clause, 'asher bi-sh'arekha ("who are in your gates", H0834A + H8179H), locates them within the addressee's towns.

The verbs 'a.khe.Lu ("they will eat", H0398) and sa.Ve.'u ("they will be satisfied", H7646) continue the same sequential-perfect chain as Va', indicating that coming, eating, and being satisfied form one continuous action rather than separate commands. The purpose clause introduced by le.Ma.'an ("so that", H4616) shifts to a piel jussive, ye.va.rekh.kha ("he may bless you", H1288), naming Yehovah ("Yehovah", H3068G) 'elohekha ("your God", H0430G) as the one who blesses "in all the work of your hand," be-khol ma'aseh yadekha (H3605+H4639G+H3027G), a construct chain expressing totality of activity, closed by the relative clause 'asher ta'aseh ("which you will do", H6213A) in the qal imperfect, denoting future or habitual action.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate (VULCLEM) and Septuagint-derived Spanish translations render the list of beneficiaries with slightly different syntactic groupings — the BSB parenthesizes the Levite's landless status as an aside, while the Hebrew presents it as a causal clause (ki 'ein-lo...) integrated into the main sequence. The SBLIBRE explicitly adds "que vive entre ustedes" for the foreigner, a clarifying phrase not present as a separate Hebrew word but implied by the shared relative clause 'asher bi-sh'arekha ("who are in your gates").