Deuteronomy 18:4

Summary

Deuteronomy 18:4 lists agricultural and pastoral offerings that an Israelite must give: the first portion of grain, new wine, and oil, along with the first sheared wool from the flock. The verse ends with a verb specifying that these things are to be given "to him," referring to a recipient established in the surrounding context.

Key words

• re.Shit ("[the] first of", H7225G) — feminine singular construct noun, appearing twice (words 1 and 10), marking the "first portion" or "best part" of what follows; grammatically it demands a following noun to complete its meaning.
• de.ga.ne.kha ("grain" + "your", H1715 + H9021) — masculine singular construct noun with second-person masculine singular suffix, meaning "your grain," specifying whose produce is meant.
• ti.ro.she.kha ("new wine" + "your", H8492 + H9021) — same construct pattern, continuing the list of produce dependent on re.Shit.
• yitz.ha.Re.kha ("fresh oil" + "your", H3323 + H9021) — third item in the construct chain, joined by ve. ("and", H9002).
• ti.ten- ("you will give", H5414G) — qal imperfect, second person masculine singular, the only finite verb in the verse, carrying the force of ongoing or future obligation for the entire list of items named before it.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built as a long chain of construct nouns preceding a single verb at the end. The word re.Shit ("[the] first of", H7225G) occurs twice, each time governing a group of nouns: first de.ga.ne.kha ("your grain"), ti.ro.she.kha ("your new wine"), and yitz.ha.Re.kha ("your fresh oil") together form one governed group under the first re.Shit; then gez tzo.ne.kha ("the fleece of your sheep") forms a second group under the second re.Shit (word 10). This construct-chain structure means that "first" applies not to each item individually stated but to the class of items as a whole — grain, wine, and oil are grouped as one category of "first," while sheep's fleece is treated as a separate category also marked by "first."

The verb ti.ten- ("you will give", H5414G), a qal imperfect second-person masculine singular form, appears only once, at the very end, governing the entire preceding list. This placement is typical of Biblical Hebrew syntax, where multiple objects can be listed before the verb that acts upon them. The final element, lo ("to him", H9005+H9033), a preposition with a third-person masculine singular suffix, indicates the person to whom all these items are given, though the referent itself is not named within this verse.

Differences between versions

The LXX and Vulgate render the second re.Shit ("[the] first of", H7225G, word 10) differently regarding scope: the LXX repeats ἀπαρχή ("firstfruit") explicitly before "wool" (τὴν ἀπαρχὴν τῶν κουρῶν), matching the Hebrew's two-part structure. The Vulgate, however, uses partem ("a part") for the wool clause instead of repeating primitias ("firstfruits"), softening the parallel between the two "first" categories that the Hebrew marks with two occurrences of re.Shit.