Deuteronomy 15:7

כִּֽי־יִהְיֶה בְךָ אֶבְיוֹן מֵאַחַד אַחֶיךָ בְּאַחַד שְׁעָרֶיךָ בְּאַרְצְךָ אֲשֶׁר־יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ נֹתֵן לָךְ לֹא תְאַמֵּץ אֶת־לְבָבְךָ וְלֹא תִקְפֹּץ אֶת־יָדְךָ מֵאָחִיךָ הָאֶבְיֽוֹן׃

✦ Hebrew interlinear

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✦ The same verse in five languages

Hebrew

כִּֽי־יִהְיֶה֩ בְךָ֨ אֶבְי֜וֹן מֵאַחַ֤ד אַחֶ֙יךָ֙ בְּאַחַ֣ד שְׁעָרֶ֔יךָ בְּאַ֨רְצְךָ֔ אֲשֶׁר־יְהוָ֥ה אֱלֹהֶ֖יךָ נֹתֵ֣ן לָ֑ךְ לֹ֧א תְאַמֵּ֣ץ אֶת־לְבָבְךָ֗ וְלֹ֤א תִקְפֹּץ֙ אֶת־יָ֣דְךָ֔ מֵאָחִ֖יךָ הָאֶבְיֽוֹן׃

Greek (Septuagint)

Ἐὰν δὲ γένηται ἐν σοὶ ἐνδεὴς τῶν ἀδελφῶν σου ἐν μιᾷ τῶν πόλεων σου ἐν τῇ γῇ ᾗ κύριος ὁ θεὸς ὅς σου δίδωσίν σοι, οὐκ ἀποστέρξεις τὴν καρδίαν σου, οὐδ’ οὐ μὴ συνσφίγξῃς τὴν χεῖρά σου ἀπὸ τοῦ ἀδελφοῦ σου τοῦ ἐπιδεομένου·

Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0

Latin (Vulgate)

Si unus de fratribus tuis, qui morantur intra portas civitatis tuæ in terra quam Dominus Deus tuus daturus est tibi, ad paupertatem venerit, non obdurabis cor tuum, nec contrahes manum,

Spanish

Si un pobre, uno de tus hermanos, está contigo dentro de cualquiera de tus puertas en tu tierra que Yehová tu Dios te da, no endurecerás tu corazón ni cerrarás tu mano a tu hermano pobre;

Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)

Cuando hubiere en ti menesteroso de alguno de tus hermanos en alguna de tus ciudades, en tu tierra que Jehová tu Dios te da, no endurecerás tu corazón, ni cerrarás tu mano á tu hermano pobre:

English

If there is a poor man among your brothers within any of the gates in the land that the LORD your God is giving you, then you are not to harden your heart or shut your hand from your poor brother.

✦ What the text says

Summary

The verse opens a conditional legal instruction: if a needy person exists among the covenant community, within any town of the land Yehovah is giving, the addressee must not harden his heart or close his hand toward that poor countryman. The syntax builds the condition through a series of construct chains locating the needy person geographically and socially before stating the prohibition.

Key words

'ev.Yon ("needy", H0034) — masculine singular adjective functioning as a noun, repeated at the end of the verse to frame the whole instruction around this figure.
'a.Chei.kha ("your countrymen", H0251I) — masculine plural construct with pronominal suffix, placing the needy person specifically within kinship terminology.
no.Ten ("is about to give", H5414G) — qal participle, expressing an ongoing or imminent action rather than a completed one, describing Yehovah's giving of the land as continuous relative to the moment of speaking.
te.'a.Metz ("you will harden", H0553) — piel imperfect, intensive stem indicating a deliberate, forceful hardening rather than a passive state.
tik.Potz ("you will shut", H7092) — qal imperfect, paired with te.'a.Metz to form two parallel prohibited actions (heart and hand).

What the text says

The verse is structured around a conditional clause introduced by ki ("if", H3588A), followed by a chain of construct phrases: "one of your countrymen" ('a.Chad 'a.Chei.kha), "in one of your gates" (be.'a.Chad she.'a.Rei.kha), "in your land" (be.'Ar.tze.kha). Each construct phrase narrows the location of the needy person, moving from kinship group to town to land, before the relative clause identifies the land as what Yehovah 'e.lo.Hei.kha ("Yehovah your God", H3068G/H0430G) no.Ten ("is giving", H5414G) — a participle marking continuous or imminent action, not a past grant.

The prohibition itself uses two parallel negated imperfect verbs: lo' te.'a.Metz ("you will not harden") governing lev.av.kha ("your heart", H3824) as direct object marked by 'et, and ve.lo' tik.Potz ("and you will not shut") governing yad.kha ("your hand", H3027G). The piel stem of te.'a.Metz intensifies the verb beyond a simple qal, suggesting an active, willed hardening rather than an incidental one. The final phrase repeats 'a.Chi.kha ha.'ev.Yon ("your countryman, the needy"), closing the verse by returning to the same figure introduced at the start, now marked with the definite article.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders 'ev.Yon ("needy") with endeēs ("poor/lacking") and expands the phrase "hand" prohibition using synsphigxēs ("you should not squeeze together"), a more vivid verb than the Hebrew tik.Potz ("shut"). The Vulgate shifts the conditional structure, using "ad paupertatem venerit" ("he shall have come to poverty") rather than a stative "there will be a needy person," reflecting a slightly different verbal aspect for yih.Yeh ("he will be", H1961). The Vulgate also omits an explicit rendering of the second prohibition's object "hand" in the clause shown, stating only "nec contrahes manum" without the qualifying "from your brother" phrase present in the Hebrew and LXX.

This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.