Deuteronomy 16:14

וְשָׂמַחְתָּ בְּחַגֶּךָ אַתָּה וּבִנְךָ וּבִתֶּךָ וְעַבְדְּךָ וַאֲמָתֶךָ וְהַלֵּוִי וְהַגֵּר וְהַיָּתוֹם וְהָאַלְמָנָה אֲשֶׁר בִּשְׁעָרֶֽיךָ׃

✦ Hebrew interlinear

Tap a word to see its entry

✦ The same verse in five languages

Hebrew

וְשָׂמַחְתָּ֖ בְּחַגֶּ֑ךָ אַתָּ֨ה וּבִנְךָ֤ וּבִתֶּ֙ךָ֙ וְעַבְדְּךָ֣ וַאֲמָתֶ֔ךָ וְהַלֵּוִ֗י וְהַגֵּ֛ר וְהַיָּת֥וֹם וְהָאַלְמָנָ֖ה אֲשֶׁ֥ר בִּשְׁעָרֶֽיךָ׃

Greek (Septuagint)

καὶ εὐφρανθήσῃ ἐν τῇ ἑορτῇ σου, σὺ καὶ ὁ υἱός σου καὶ ἡ θυγάτηρ σου, ὁ παῖς σου καὶ ἡ παιδίσκη σου, καὶ ὁ Λευεὶτης καὶ ὁ προσήλυτος καὶ ὁ ὀρφανὸς καὶ ἡ χήρα ἡ οὖσα ἐν ταῖς πόλεσίν σου.

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

Latin (Vulgate)

et epulaberis in festivitate tua, tu, filius tuus et filia, servus tuus et ancilla, Levites quoque et advena, pupillus et vidua qui intra portas tuas sunt.

Spanish

Te alegrarás de tu fiesta, tú, tu hijo, tu hija, tu siervo, tu sierva, el levita, el extranjero, el huérfano y la viuda que estén dentro de tus puertas.

Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)

Y te alegrarás en tus solemnidades, tú, y tu hijo, y tu hija, y tu siervo, y tu sierva, y el Levita, y el extranjero, y el huérfano, y la viuda, que están en tus poblaciones.

English

And you shall rejoice in your feast — you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levite, as well as the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widows among you.

✦ What the text says

Summary

The verse commands rejoicing during a festival, listing who is to take part: the addressee himself, his household (son, daughter, male and female servant), and vulnerable groups without their own land-holding household — the Levite, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow — specified as those living "in your gates."

Key words

sa.mach.Ta ("you will rejoice", H8055) — Qal sequential perfect, 2nd person masculine singular; continues a narrative chain begun earlier, functioning here as a command tied to the preceding sequence of instructions.
cha.Ge.kha ("festival of your", H2282 + H9021) — construct noun with pronominal suffix, "your festival," anchoring the rejoicing to a specific occasion belonging to the addressee.
ha.Ger ("the sojourner", H1616) — definite noun marking a non-Israelite resident, grammatically parallel to the other groups listed with the definite article.
ha.al.ma.Nah ("the widow", H0490) — definite feminine singular noun, last in the list of dependents, paralleling ha.ya.Tom ("the fatherless one", H3490) just before it.
sha.'a.Rei.kha ("gates of your", H8179H + H9021) — construct plural noun with suffix, "your gates," a term for settlements/towns, defining where the listed dependents reside.

What the text says

The verse opens with a narrative vav (ve, H9001) attached to sa.mach.Ta ("you will rejoice", H8055), a sequential perfect that carries forward the command structure of the passage rather than describing a past event. The verb governs the prepositional phrase be.cha.Ge.kha ("at the festival of your", H2282 + H9021), a construct chain meaning "your festival," setting the occasion for the command.

What follows is a long list joined by repeated conjunctions (ve, H9002), each item introduced with "and": 'a.Tah ("you", H0859A), then a series of construct nouns with second-person suffixes — vin.kha ("son of your", H1121A + H9021), vi.Te.kha ("daughter of your", H1323G + H9021), 'av.de.kha ("servant of your", H5650 + H9021), 'a.ma.Te.kha ("female servant of your", H0519 + H9021) — representing the household unit. The list then shifts to nouns bearing the definite article rather than a possessive suffix: ha.Le.vi ("the Levite", H3881), ha.Ger ("the sojourner", H1616), ha.ya.Tom ("the fatherless one", H3490), and ha.al.ma.Nah ("the widow", H0490). This grammatical shift — from possessed household members to independently defined categories — distinguishes those attached to the addressee's household from those identified by social status. The relative clause 'a.Sher bi.sh.'a.Rei.kha ("who [are] in gates of your", H0834A + H9003 + H8179H + H9021) closes the verse, locating this second group specifically within the addressee's settlements.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew bi.sh.'a.Rei.kha ("in your gates," H8179H) is rendered by the LXX as ἐν ταῖς πόλεσίν σου ("in your cities"), and by the Vulgate as qui intra portas tuas sunt ("who are within your gates"), closer to the Hebrew image of "gates." The LXX also renders the singular ha.al.ma.Nah ("the widow") with the singular χήρα, while some translations (e.g., BSB) render it as plural "widows."

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