Deuteronomy 18:19

Summary

The verse states that Yehovah himself will hold responsible ("require," H1875) any person who does not listen to the words that will be spoken in his name. The sentence uses two relative clauses to define both the disobedient party and the words in question, culminating in an emphatic first-person declaration of divine action.

Key words

• ha.Yah ("it will be", H1961) — qal sequential perfect (vav + perfect), continuing a chain of consequences from the preceding verses; introduces the outcome clause.
• yish.Ma' ("he will listen", H8085G) — qal imperfect, third person; expresses a future/ongoing failure to listen, negated by lo' ("not", H3808).
• de.va.Ra + i ("my words", H1697G + H9020) — masculine plural noun in construct with the 1st-person suffix "my," meaning literally "words of me."
• 'a.no.Khi ("I", H0595) — independent personal pronoun placed before the verb, adding emphasis to the subject of the following verb (a grammatically unnecessary but rhetorically strong "I myself").
• 'ed.Rosh ("I will require", H1875) — qal imperfect, 1st person; the core verb of consequence, combined with the compound phrase me.'i.mo ("from with him", H9006+H5973B+H9033).

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence opens with the narrative ve.ha.Yah ("and it will be"), a formula that ties this verse to the preceding legal material as its consequence clause. The subject is ha.'Ish ("the person", H0376G), qualified by a relative clause introduced by 'a.Sher ("who", H0834A): "who will not listen to my words." A second relative clause, also introduced by 'a.Sher, further specifies "my words" (de.va.Rai) as those "which he will speak" (ye.da.Ber, piel imperfect) "in my name" (bi.sh.Mi). The piel stem of ye.da.Ber denotes the intensive/frequentative act of speaking, contrasted with the simple qal of yish.Ma' ("to listen"). No explicit noun for "prophet" appears in this verse itself; the identity of the speaker is carried over from the surrounding context of the chapter, so the pronoun-like structure depends on that continuity.

The final clause places the independent pronoun 'a.no.Khi ("I") before the verb 'ed.Rosh ("I will require," qal imperfect), an emphatic construction highlighting Yehovah as the one who will act. The verb governs the compound preposition me.'i.mo ("from with him"), a Hebrew idiom expressing an accounting or demand made of a person, not merely "from him."

Differences between versions

The LXX text explicitly inserts ὁ προφήτης ἐκεῖνος ("that prophet") where the Hebrew of this verse itself has no equivalent noun, drawing the referent from surrounding verses of the chapter. The LXX also merges this verse into a longer continuous unit including material found in Hebrew verses 20–22. The Vulgate renders 'ed.Rosh ("I will require", H1875) as "ultor existam" ("I will be as an avenger"), a phrase carrying a connotation of vengeance not present in the root sense of "to seek/require." The English (BSB) and Spanish (RV1909, SBLIBRE) versions use "hold accountable," "residenciaré," and "exigiré," respectively — each choosing a different nuance for the same verb 'ed.Rosh.