Deuteronomy 18:12

Summary

The verse states that anyone who practices the things previously listed is to'aVat ("abomination of") Yehovah, and it is because of these very practices that Yehovah the God of the addressee is currently dispossessing the nations from before him.

Key words

• to'aVat ("abomination of", H8441) — feminine singular construct noun, linking the abstract quality "abomination" directly to Yehovah as the one who finds it abhorrent.
• 'Oseh ("[one who] does", H6213A) — qal participle, masculine singular construct; describes an ongoing or characteristic action ("the one doing"), not a single past act, and stands in construct with the following demonstrative.
• to'eVot ("abominations", H8441) — same root as word 2, but plural and with the definite article ha- (H9009), shifting from a general quality to a defined set of specific acts previously enumerated.
• moRish ("[is] about to dispossess", H3423H) — hiphil (causative) participle, masculine singular; grammatically parallel in form to 'Oseh, presenting the dispossession as a continuous or unfolding action performed by Yehovah, not a completed event.
• gLal ("account of", H1558) — masculine singular construct noun functioning with the preposition bi (H9003) to form the causal phrase "on account of," tying the dispossession directly to the abominations just named.

What the text says

The verse is built around two parallel participial constructions using the same root to'aVat/to'eVot (H8441): first in the singular, generalizing the abomination as a category attached to anyone who does "these things" ('Elleh, H0428), and then in the plural with the article, specifying "these abominations" as a defined set. This repetition creates a causal chain: the action described in verses before this one is abominable to Yehovah, and it is precisely because of that abomination that the dispossession named here occurs.

The two participles 'Oseh ("the one doing") and moRish ("the one dispossessing") share the same grammatical form (qal and hiphil participles respectively), which the Hebrew uses to draw a structural parallel between human action and divine reaction: as the practice continues, so does the dispossession. The participle moRish in particular signals an action in process — grammatically closer to "is dispossessing" than to a completed "dispossessed" or a future "will dispossess."

Differences between versions

The LXX renders moRish ("is dispossessing", H3423H) with the future tense verb ἐξολεθρεύσει ("will destroy" or "will utterly destroy"), a different lexical choice from the Hebrew root meaning "to dispossess" or "to drive out." The Vulgate similarly uses the future delebit ("will destroy"), adding the phrase "in introitu tuo" ("at your entering"), which has no direct equivalent in the Hebrew text provided. Both the LXX and Vulgate thus shift the Hebrew's participial, process-oriented "is dispossessing" toward a future, single-completion "will destroy."