Deuteronomy 16:5

Summary

Deuteronomy 16:5 prohibits the Passover sacrifice from being performed in any local settlement. Instead, as the following verse specifies, it must take place at a designated central location. The verse names the giver of the land as Yehovah ("Yehovah", H3068), described as continuously "giving" the land to the people.

Key words

• tuchal ("you will be able", H3201) — Qal imperfect, expressing capacity/permission over ongoing or future time; combined with lo' ("not", H3808) it forms an emphatic prohibition ("you will not be able to").
• lizboach ("to sacrifice", H2076) — Qal infinitive construct with prefixed li ("to", H9005), expressing purpose or action dependent on the preceding verb: "to sacrifice."
• sha'areikha ("your gates", H8179 + H9021) — masculine plural construct noun with 2nd person masculine suffix, literally "your gates," here functioning as a term for local towns or settlements (a gate representing the entry point of a walled town).
• 'achad ("one of", H0259) — feminine singular construct, forming the phrase "in one of your gates," restricting the action to any single local settlement.
• noten ("giving", H5414) — Qal participle, masculine singular, denoting an ongoing or characteristic action: Yehovah as the one continually/about to be "giving" the land.

What the text says

The verse opens with a strong negative construction: lo' tuchal ("you will not be able", H3808 + H3201) followed by the infinitive lizboach ("to sacrifice", H2076). This infinitive-plus-modal-verb pairing is common in Hebrew legal prohibition style, expressing not mere permission but incapacity or disallowance under the law: "you will not be able to sacrifice." The object marked by 'et (H0853, untranslated) is ha-Pasach ("the Passover", H6453), a definite noun referring to the sacrificial animal or rite itself.

The prohibited location is described as be-'achad she'areikha ("in one of your gates", H0259 + H8179 + H9021) — literally "in one of your gates," a construct phrase where "gates" stands for the towns or settlements themselves, since a town's gate was its entrance and administrative center. The relative clause that follows, 'asher Yehovah Eloheikha noten lakh ("which Yehovah your God is giving to you"), uses the participle noten (H5414) rather than a finite verb, portraying the giving of the land as a continuing or immediate action rather than a completed one.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew she'areikha ("your gates", H8179) is rendered in the LXX as τῶν πόλεων σου ("your cities") and in the Vulgate as urbium tuarum ("of your cities"). Both Greek and Latin versions replace the concrete image of "gates" with the more general term "cities," while the Hebrew text preserves the specific term for the town entrance itself.