Deuteronomy 17:14

Summary

The verse opens the law of kingship by describing a future scenario: once Israel enters and takes possession of the land that Yehovah is giving them, and settles in it, the people will say they want to set a king over themselves, like the nations surrounding them.

Key words

• ta.Vo' ("you will go", H0935G) — qal imperfect, 2nd person masculine singular, marking the future/ongoing entry into the land; introduced by ki ("if", H3588A), forming the conditional clause that opens the verse.
• no.Ten ("[is] about to give", H5414G) — qal participle, describing Yehovah's giving as an ongoing or continuous action rather than a single completed act.
• vi.rish.Ta ("you will take possession of", H3423H) and ya.Shav.tah ("you will dwell", H3427) — both sequential (waw-consecutive) perfects, chaining onto the initial imperfect ta.Vo' to form a continuous narrative sequence: entering, then possessing, then dwelling.
• 'a.Si.mah ("let me appoint", H7760L) — a first-person qal form (labeled infinitive in this data) expressing the people's proposed action of setting a king over themselves.
• Me.lekh ("a king", H4428G) — masculine singular noun, the object the people request, compared explicitly to what "all the nations" (go.Yim, H1471A) around them have.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built as a chain of four verbs following the conditional particle ki ("if", H3588A): an initial imperfect (ta.Vo', "you will go") sets up the condition, and three sequential perfects (vi.rish.Ta, ya.Shav.tah, 'a.mar.Ta — "you will take possession," "you will dwell," "you will say") continue the sequence of events. This waw-consecutive structure ties entry into the land, possession, settlement, and the eventual request for a king into one continuous unfolding action rather than separate isolated events.

The land is described with a relative clause, 'a.Sher Yehovah 'e.lo.Hei.kha no.Ten la.kh ("which Yehovah your God is giving to you"), using the participle no.Ten to frame the giving as a present, continuing action tied to the moment of entry rather than a completed past grant. The people's request is expressed with 'a.Si.mah 'a.La.i Me.lekh ("let me set over myself a king"), and the comparison clause ke.khol-ha.go.Yim 'a.Sher se.vi.vo.Ta.i ("like all the nations that are around me") uses the construct chain khol-ha.go.Yim ("all of the nations") to specify the surrounding peoples as the model being invoked.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders Me.lekh ("king", H4428G) as ἄρχοντα ("ruler"), where the Hebrew and the Vulgate (regem, "king") both use the specific term for king. The Vulgate's dabit ("will give") reflects a simple future, while the Hebrew participle no.Ten presents the giving as ongoing. The SBLIBRE Spanish translation renders the singular Hebrew verbs (ta.Vo', vi.rish.Ta, etc.) with plural forms ("lleguen," "posean"), differing from the singular address found in the Hebrew, LXX, and Vulgate.