Deuteronomy 15:9

Summary

This verse warns against harboring a hostile inner thought that uses the approach of the seventh year (the year of remission of debts) as a pretext to withhold aid from a poor fellow-Israelite. It states that such refusal would prompt the needy person to appeal to Yehovah, and the one who refused would incur sin.

Key words

• hiShamer ("take heed", H8104J) — niphal imperative, a reflexive/passive command meaning literally "be kept, guarded" — the verse opens with self-directed vigilance.
• belaya'al ("worthlessness", H1100I) — a noun in construct-like use describing the davar ("word/thing", H1697G) that could exist "with your heart," i.e., a worthless or wicked matter forming internally.
• ra'ah ("it will be evil", H7489A) — qal sequential perfect describing the eye ('einekha, "your eye", H5869A construct) becoming evil, a Hebrew idiom for begrudging or hostile looking.
• qara' ("he will call out", H7121G) — qal sequential perfect, describing the needy person's outcry directed 'el-Yehovah ("to Yehovah", H3068G).
• chet' ("sin", H2399) — final noun stating the resulting condition "on you" (bekha, H9031 suffix), without an adjective modifying it in the Hebrew text.

What the text says

The sentence begins with the imperative hiShamer lekha ("take heed to/for yourself"), followed by a subordinate clause introduced by pen ("lest", H6435), which sets up a hypothetical inner event: yihyeh davar 'im-levavekha beliya'al — "there should be a word/thing with your heart, worthlessness." The syntax places beliya'al ("worthlessness", H1100I) in apposition after davar, characterizing the nature of that internal "word." This is followed by le'mor ("saying", H0559 infinitive), introducing the reported inner speech: "the year of the seven, the year of the remission, has drawn near" (qarevah shenat-hashevaʿ shenat hashemitah).

The text then shifts to a chain of sequential perfects (ve-ra'ah, ve-qara', ve-hayah) marked by the narrative vav (H9001), which continues the logical/temporal sequence begun by the imperative and conditional clause: "and your eye will be evil against your brother, the needy one, and you will not give to him; and he will call out against you to Yehovah; and there will be on you sin." Each step follows causally from the prior: the inner thought leads to the evil eye, which leads to withholding, which leads to the outcry, which leads to the state of chet' ("sin", H2399) being "on" the person (bekha, "on you").

Notably, the Hebrew chet' stands without a qualifying adjective — it simply says "sin," not "great sin."

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the concluding phrase as ἁμαρτία μεγάλη ("great sin"), adding the adjective "great" (μεγάλη) where the Hebrew has only chet' ("sin", H2399) with no modifier. The Vulgate's "fiat tibi in peccatum" ("let it become to you unto sin") likewise has no equivalent to "great," aligning more closely with the unmodified Hebrew noun. The LXX also renders beliya'al as ἀνόμημα ("lawless act") and adds κρυπτὸν ("hidden") before ῥῆμα, an addition not present in the Hebrew davar ("word/thing", H1697G).