Deuteronomy 16:17

Summary

The verse instructs that each individual is to give according to the measure of his own means, described literally as "the gift of his hand," in proportion to the blessing that Yehovah his God has granted him. The giving is tied directly to the extent of what each person has personally received.

Key words

• 'ish ("anyone", H0376I) — singular noun functioning distributively, "each man" / "everyone," setting up an individualized standard rather than a fixed communal amount.
• ma.te.Nat ("gift of", H4979) — feminine singular construct noun, linked to yad ("hand") to form the idiom "the gift of his hand," meaning what one's own hand/means can provide.
• ya.D...o ("his hand", H3027H + H9023) — construct noun with pronominal suffix "his," completing the idiom of personal capacity or means.
• vir.Kat ("blessing of", H1293) — feminine singular construct noun, paired with Yehovah 'Elohekha ("Yehovah your God"), establishing the second standard of measure: divine blessing received.
• na.tan ("he has given", H5414G) — Qal perfect verb, third person masculine singular, indicating a completed action: the blessing already given, which now defines the measure of giving.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built on two parallel construct phrases introduced by the preposition ke ("according to", H9004): ke-ma.te.Nat ya.D-o ("according to the gift of his hand") and ke-vir.Kat Yehovah 'Elohekha ("according to the blessing of Yehovah your God"). This structure creates an equivalence between one's own capacity ("the gift of his hand") and what has been received from Yehovah ("the blessing of Yehovah your God") — the two phrases describe the same reality from two angles: human means and divine origin of that means.

The relative clause 'a.Sher na.tan-lakh ("which he has given to you") closes the verse, using the Qal perfect na.tan ("he has given", H5414G) to mark this giving as a completed, prior action — the blessing already given is the basis for present giving. The subject 'ish ("anyone", H0376I) at the start of the verse is singular but distributive, meaning the instruction applies individually to each person, not as a fixed collective quota.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the Hebrew ma.te.Nat ya.D-o ("the gift of his hand") as κατὰ δύναμιν τῶν χειρῶν ὑμῶν ("according to the power/ability of your hands"), shifting from a singular "his hand" to plural "your hands" and introducing the abstract term "power/ability" rather than "gift." The Vulgate uses "secundum quod habuerit" ("according to what he has"), a more general phrasing that does not preserve the "hand" idiom found in the Hebrew. The Hebrew's construct idiom centered on yad ("hand") — expressing personal means through the image of the hand — is thus rendered more abstractly in both the Greek and Latin versions.