Deuteronomy 16:9

Summary

The verse instructs counting a period of seven weeks (shiv'ah shavu'ot, H7651/H7620H), with the starting point defined by the first use of the sickle on the standing grain. The Hebrew frames this instruction in a chiastic structure: it opens and closes with the same phrase "seven weeks," bracketing the temporal marker that triggers the counting.

Key words

• shiv.'Ah / sha.vu.'Ot ("seven" / "weeks", H7651 / H7620H) — this phrase opens and closes the verse, forming an inclusio around the counting instruction.
• tis.por- ("you will count", H5608A) — qal imperfect, second-person masculine; the ongoing/future counting is stated first, before its starting condition is given.
• me.ha.Chel ("from when begins", H2490C) — preposition me ("from") + hiphil infinitive of the causative root; marks the temporal threshold ("from the beginning of...") rather than a fixed calendar date.
• cher.Mesh ("a sickle", H2770) — concrete agricultural tool; its first contact with the grain functions as the calendrical trigger.
• ta.Chel ("you will begin", H2490C) — hiphil imperfect, same root as ha.Chel; repeats the "beginning" concept, now applied to the act of counting itself rather than the sickle.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence places the command tispor-lakh ("you will count for yourself," H5608A with pronominal suffix H9031) at the very start, before explaining what triggers the count. The trigger is expressed with an infinitive construction, mehachel cheresh baqqamah — literally "from the beginning-causing of a sickle in the standing grain" (H2490C, H2770, H7054). This infinitive form does not name a specific day but describes an action-in-progress: the first movement of the sickle into the grain.

The second half of the verse restates the counting command using tachel lispor ("you will begin to count," H2490C + H5608A), employing the same root ch-l-l (H2490C) that appeared earlier for "beginning," but now in the imperfect rather than infinitive form, and applied to the human subject's action of counting rather than to the sickle's action. The repetition of shiv'ah shavu'ot at the end mirrors its appearance at the start, so the verse's structure itself enacts the counting cycle: seven weeks — starting point — seven weeks.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate (VULCLEM) renders the Hebrew infinitival phrase mehachel cheresh baqqamah as ab ea die qua falcem in segetem miseris ("from that day on which you shall have put the sickle into the grain"), introducing the noun "day" (die), which has no separate lexical counterpart in the Hebrew infinitive construction. The LXX (LXXSWETE) uses a genitive absolute, ἀρξαμένου σου ("you having begun"), shifting the grammatical subject of "beginning" from the sickle's action to the person's action, differing from the Hebrew's hachel cheresh structure where the infinitive is grammatically tied to the sickle's first use.