Deuteronomy 16:10

Summary

The verse instructs the observance of the festival of weeks (Shavuot) to Yehovah, specifying that the offering brought is measured by the sufficiency of one's own means, given in proportion to the blessing Yehovah has granted.

Key words

• 'a.Si.ta ("you will observe", H6213A) — qal sequential perfect, continuing the narrative chain of commands begun earlier in the passage; expresses an action to be carried out in sequence with prior instructions.
• sha.vu.'Ot ("weeks", H7620G) — feminine plural noun in construct with chag ("festival of", H2282), forming the title "festival of weeks."
• mi.Sat ("a sufficiency of", H4530) — feminine singular construct noun, the first of a chain of three constructs (mi.Sat... nid.Vat... ya.de.kha) building the phrase "a sufficiency of the freewill offering of your hand."
• nid.Vat ("a freewill offering of", H5071) — feminine singular construct, links the notion of voluntary giving to the following noun "hand," indicating the offering originates from personal capacity rather than fixed quantity.
• ye.va.rekh.kha ("he will bless you", H1288) — piel imperfect, an intensive verb form describing Yehovah's ongoing or future act of blessing, which serves as the measuring standard for the offering.

What the text says

The verse opens with the sequential perfect 'a.Si.ta ("you will observe"), continuing a chain of commands. The object is chag sha.vu.'Ot ("festival of weeks"), a construct phrase naming the occasion, directed la.Yehovah 'e.lo.Hei.kha ("to Yehovah your God").

The offering itself is described through a triple construct chain: mi.Sat nid.Vat ya.de.kha — literally "a sufficiency of a freewill offering of your hand." This stacked construct structure ties the amount given (mi.Sat, "sufficiency") to the nature of the gift (nid.Vat, "freewill offering") and its source (ya.de.kha, "your hand"). The relative clause 'a.Sher ti.Ten ("which you will give") uses the qal imperfect, indicating an act performed at the time of the festival, not a fixed past obligation.

The final clause introduces a second relative particle, ka.'a.Sher ("just as"), governing the piel imperfect ye.va.rekh.kha ("he will bless you"). This piel form intensifies the verbal action of blessing, and the imperfect aspect marks it as an ongoing or repeated divine action that determines the proportion of the offering. The subject of this blessing is again Yehovah 'e.lo.Hei.kha ("Yehovah your God"), repeating the divine name and title from the first clause, framing the entire verse between two identical references to Yehovah as God.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the Hebrew construct chain mi.Sat nid.Vat ya.de.kha ("a sufficiency of the freewill offering of your hand") as καθότι ἡ χείρ σου ἰσχύει ("according as your hand is strong/able"), shifting the emphasis from "freewill offering" to capability of the hand, and omitting an explicit rendering of nid.Vat ("freewill offering"). The Vulgate similarly translates this segment as "oblationem spontaneam manus tuæ" ("the spontaneous offering of your hand"), preserving the voluntary sense present in the Hebrew nid.Vat but without a separate term corresponding to mi.Sat ("sufficiency").