Deuteronomy 17:16

Summary

The verse restricts a future king of Israel: he must not multiply susim ("horses", H5483M) for himself, and he must not cause the people to return to Egypt for the purpose of acquiring more horses. The verse closes by grounding this prohibition in a prior statement of Yehovah that the people should not go back "on this way" again.

Key words

• rak ("only", H7535) — an adverb marking a restrictive clause, here setting up an exception or limitation.
• yarbeh ("he will increase", H7235A) — hiphil imperfect, causative: the subject (the king, from context) causes horses to increase/multiply for himself.
• mitzraymah ("Egypt" + directional he, H4714G/H9011) — the directional he suffix attached to the place name indicates motion "toward" Egypt, functioning like "to Egypt" without a separate preposition.
• lemaan ("so as", H4616) — a subordinating particle introducing purpose: "in order to" increase horses.
• tosifun ("you will repeat", H3254G) with paragogic nun (H9013) — hiphil imperfect plural with an emphatic final nun, intensifying the verb "to add/repeat."

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built from two parallel negative clauses joined by ve- ("and", H9002): lo yarbeh lo susim ("he will not increase horses for himself") and ve-lo yashiv et-ha'am mitzraymah ("and he will not make the people return to Egypt"). Both verbs are hiphil imperfects, marking causative, forward-looking actions attributed to the king as subject. The second clause uses the object marker 'et (H0853) before ha'am ("the people", H5971A), confirming that "the people" is the direct object of "he will make return," not an independent subject.

The purpose clause lema'an harbot sus ("so as to increase horses") explains the motive for returning to Egypt — not the return itself. The infinitive harbot (H7235A) repeats the same root as yarbeh earlier, creating a lexical link between the two prohibitions: horses multiplied for the king, and horses as the reason for a hypothetical return to Egypt.

The final clause shifts to Yehovah as speaker: va-YHVH 'amar lakhem ("and Yehovah has said to you all"), using the qal perfect 'amar (H0559) for a completed speech-act. The content of that speech is introduced without a formal quotative particle, moving directly into lo tosifun lashuv ("you will not again return"), where the paragogic nun on tosifun adds emphasis to the negated repetition. The infinitive lashuv (H7725G) pairs with the demonstrative phrase ba-derekh ha-zeh 'od ("on this way again"), reinforcing through repetition of "again" (tosifun... 'od) that the prohibition concerns a return along a specific previously-traveled route.

Differences between versions

The LXX opens with ouk adelphos sou estin ("he is not your brother"), a phrase absent from the Hebrew text as given, corresponding instead to material from the preceding verse. The LXX renders the purpose clause with hopōs mē plēthynē autō hippon ("so that he not multiply horses for himself"), duplicating the horse-multiplication motif already present in the Hebrew harbot sus. The Vulgate adds an explanatory phrase, equitatus numero sublevatus ("relieved by the number of cavalry"), which has no equivalent among the Hebrew words listed. The Vulgate also renders the final clause as a purpose statement ("that you never return by the same way"), while the Hebrew lo tosifun lashuv is a direct negated statement rather than a subordinate purpose clause.