Deuteronomy 18:20

Summary

The verse establishes a legal consequence for a prophet who presumptuously speaks in Yehovah's name a word he was not commanded to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods: that prophet is to die.

Key words

• yaZid ("he will act presumptuously", H2102) — hiphil imperfect of the root meaning to boil over or act insolently; the hiphil form gives it a causative-intensive sense, "to act presumptuously" or "to be arrogant," describing the prophet's willful overreach rather than an honest mistake.
• daBer ("speaking", H1696G) — piel infinitive construct, appearing twice (positions 7 and 18); the piel stem intensifies the act of speaking, and the infinitive form ties it to the preceding verb as its object/purpose ("act presumptuously in speaking...").
• tzivviTi ("I commanded", H6680) — piel perfect first person, marking completed action; combined with the negation lo' ("not", H3808), it specifies that this particular word was never authorized by the speaker.
• yedaBer ("he will speak", H1696G) — piel imperfect, parallel to yaZid, describing a second and distinct offense: speaking in the name of other gods, contrasted with the unauthorized speech "in my name."
• Met ("he will die", H4191) — qal verb marked as sequential perfect, continuing the narrative/legal sequence begun by the earlier imperfects; it delivers the consequence as the final link in the chain of conditions.

What the text says

The sentence opens with 'akh ("nevertheless", H0389), an adverb that sets this verse in contrast to what precedes it, isolating a specific case among prophetic speech. The subject is ha-naVi' ("the prophet", H5030), qualified by two relative clauses introduced by 'asher ("who/that", H0834A). The first relative clause describes a prophet who yaZid ("acts presumptuously", H2102) le-daBer daVar bi-shmi — literally "to speak a word in my name" — a word specified further by a second 'asher clause: "that which I did not command him to speak," using lo' tzivviTiv ("I did not command him", H6680 with pronominal suffix "him"). This creates a nested structure: the prophet's fault is not speaking in Yehovah's name per se, but speaking content never authorized under that name.

The second condition, joined by va-'asher ("and who", H0834A), is grammatically parallel but distinct: yedaBer be-shem 'Elohim 'acherim ("he will speak in the name of other gods", H1696G, H0430J, H0312). This is not unauthorized speech in Yehovah's name but speech attributed to a different divine source altogether. Both conditions are joined by the narrative vav before Met ("he will die", H4191), which shifts to a qal sequential perfect, marking the outcome that follows either condition. The closing phrase ha-naVi' ha-hu' ("that prophet", H5030 + H1931) repeats the subject with a demonstrative pronoun, emphasizing that the same individual described above is the one facing the stated consequence.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate renders the second condition as "ex nomine alienorum deorum" ("from the name of foreign gods"), using "alienorum" where the Hebrew has 'acherim ("other", H0312); both convey a sense of foreignness/otherness but are not identical terms. The BSB and RV1909 translate yaZid with "dares" or "presumiere," both capturing the presumptuous/arrogant nuance of the hiphil form, though English "dares" and Spanish "presumiere" frame the boldness differently — one as daring, the other as presuming.