Deuteronomy 16:20

Summary

Deuteronomy 16:20 instructs the addressee (second person masculine singular) to pursue righteousness, using this pursuit as the condition for living and for taking possession of the land that Yehovah is in the process of giving. The verse closes the section on the appointment of judges (16:18-20) with a general ethical directive tied to promises of life and land tenure.

Key words

• Tze.dek ("righteousness", H6664) — masculine singular noun, repeated twice in immediate succession at the start of the verse, before any verb appears.
• tir.Dof ("you will pursue", H7291) — qal imperfect, second person masculine singular; expresses ongoing or future action, here governing both instances of tze.dek.
• le.Ma'an ("so that", H4616) — subordinating particle introducing purpose/result, linking the pursuit of righteousness to what follows.
• tich.Yeh ("you may live", H2421) — qal jussive, second person masculine singular, expressing a wished-for or resulting state rather than a simple future.
• ya.rash.Ta ("you will take possession of", H3423) — qal sequential perfect, continuing the chain of consequence begun by le.Ma'an + jussive.
• no.Ten ("[is] about to give", H5414) — qal active participle, masculine singular, describing Yehovah's giving of the land as an ongoing or imminent action rather than a completed one.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence opens with the noun Tze.dek ("righteousness", H6664) stated twice before its governing verb tir.Dof ("you will pursue", H7291) appears. This doubling of the object noun, placed ahead of the verb, is a construction that in Hebrew syntax creates emphasis through repetition — the object is stated, then restated, then acted upon. The verb itself is a qal imperfect, which can carry ongoing, habitual, or future force.

The clause that follows is structured as a purpose-result chain: le.Ma'an ("so that", H4616) introduces a jussive verb tich.Yeh ("you may live", H2421), and this is followed by a vav-connected sequential perfect ya.rash.Ta ("you will take possession of", H3423). This sequence (purpose particle + jussive + sequential perfect) presents "living" and "possessing the land" as linked outcomes flowing from the initial act of pursuing righteousness, rather than as two independent statements.

The land itself is qualified by a relative clause: 'a.Sher ("which", H0834) Yehovah 'e.lo.Hei.kha ("your God", H0430 + suffix) no.Ten ("[is] about to give", H5414) lakh ("to you", H9005+H9031). The verb here is a participle, not a perfect or imperfect, marking the giving as a continuous or imminent action attributed to the subject Yehovah, rather than a discrete completed or future event.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the doubled Hebrew Tze.dek Tze.dek as δικαὶως τὸ δίκαιον ("justly the just thing"), converting the repetition into an adverb-plus-noun construction rather than preserving the exact doubling of the same noun. The LXX also adds εἰσελθόντες ("having entered"), a participial phrase not present in the Hebrew text, before "you will inherit the land." The Vulgate's Juste quod justum est similarly reflects the "justly what is just" phrasing found in the LXX rather than a direct double noun. The Hebrew participle no.Ten ("[is] about to give") is rendered in the Vulgate as dederit (future/subjunctive perfect, "will have given"), shifting the aspect from ongoing/imminent to a completed future action, while the LXX's δίδωσίν preserves a present-tense sense closer to the Hebrew participle.