Deuteronomy 17:18

Summary

The verse describes a future obligation: when the king sits on the throne of his kingdom, he must write for himself a copy of this law on a scroll, taken from before the Levitical priests. The sentence is structured as a sequential legal instruction following the appointment of a king in the preceding verses.

Key words

• ha.Yah ("it will be", H1961) — sequential perfect verb (vav-consecutive), continuing a chain of future legal instructions; marks the onset of a new circumstance ("and it will be...").
• shiv.T ("sits", H3427) — infinitive construct with prefixed khe. ("when"), forming a temporal clause: "when his sitting" = "when he sits."
• ki.Se' ("throne of", H3678G) — construct noun linked to mam.lakh.T ("kingdom", H4467) + suffix o ("his"), forming "the throne of his kingdom."
• Kha.tav ("he will write", H3789) — sequential perfect, parallel to ha.Yah, indicating the action required once the temporal condition is met.
• mish.Neh ("copy of", H4932H) — construct noun governing ha.to.Rah ha.zoT ("this law"), meaning a duplicate or second copy of the law-text.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence opens with the narrative/sequential vav on ha.Yah ("and it will be"), a construction typical of legal-narrative sequences in this text, setting up a conditional temporal frame: "and it will be when he sits..." The infinitive shiv.T ("sits", H3427) with the prefixed preposition khe. ("when") creates a subordinate temporal clause, and the attached pronominal suffix o ("his") supplies the subject: "when his sitting" = "when he sits." This is followed by the prepositional phrase 'al ki.Se' mam.lakh.T-o ("on the throne of his kingdom"), where both ki.Se' ("throne of") and mam.lakh.T ("kingdom") are in construct form, chaining "throne" to "kingdom" to "his."

The main clause begins with the second sequential perfect, Kha.tav ("he will write"), continuing the grammatical chain from ha.Yah. The object is marked by 'et- (H0853, untranslated direct object marker) followed by mish.Neh ha.to.Rah ha.zoT ("a copy of this law/instruction"), where mish.Neh (H4932H) is a construct noun meaning "copy" or "duplicate," governing the phrase "this law." The location of the writing is specified as 'al Se.fer ("on a scroll"). The final phrase, mi.li.f.Nei ha.ko.ha.Nim ha.l.vi.Yim ("from before the priests, the Levites"), uses a compound preposition (mi. "from" + li. "to" + f.Nei "before," construct plural of "face") indicating the source location — literally "from the presence of the priests, the Levites" — suggesting the copy is taken from a text kept in that priestly setting.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders mish.Neh ha.to.Rah ("copy of this law") as τὸ δευτερονόμιον τοῦτο ("this Deuteronomion"/"second law"), treating mish.Neh as a title-like term ("second law") rather than "copy." The Vulgate similarly reads Deuteronomium legis hujus ("the Deuteronomy of this law"), combining both "copy" and "law" into a compound phrase absent from the Hebrew's simpler construct chain. The Hebrew phrase mi.li.f.Nei ha.ko.ha.Nim ("from before the priests") is rendered by the LXX as παρὰ τῶν ἱερέων ("from the priests") and by the Vulgate as accipiens exemplar a sacerdotibus ("receiving a copy from the priests"), both making explicit an act of "receiving" that is only implied by the Hebrew preposition structure.