Deuteronomy 22:1

Summary

The verse prohibits ignoring a fellow Israelite's ox or sheep when found straying, and commands actively returning it to its owner. The Hebrew frames this as both a negative prohibition (against hiding oneself) and a positive, emphatic duty (to return the animal).

Key words

• tir.'Eh ("you will see", H7200G) — qal imperfect, describing the act of encountering or noticing the animal; paired with lo'- ("not", H3808) it forms the initial prohibition against seeing-and-ignoring.
• ni.da.Chim ("going astray", H5080) — niphal participle, masculine plural, describing the ox and sheep as animals undergoing straying; the passive/reflexive niphal stem presents the straying as something happening to the animal rather than an action it initiates.
• hit.'a.lam.Ta ("you will hide yourself", H5956) — hithpael sequential perfect, reflexive stem indicating the subject hides himself, not merely looks away; continues the narrative sequence begun by the vav.
• ha.Shev ("certainly [to return]", H7725G) — hiphil absolute infinitive, used adjacent to the finite verb of the same root to intensify the command.
• te.shi.Ve ("you will return", H7725G) — hiphil imperfect, causative stem meaning "cause to return"; combined with ha.Shev forms the emphatic construction "you shall surely return."

What the text says

The verse opens with lo'-tir.'Eh ("not you will see"), a qal imperfect negated by lo', establishing the prohibited scenario: encountering shor 'a.Chi.kha ("ox of your countryman", H7794 + H0251I with suffix H9021) or se.Y.o ("his sheep", H7716 + H9023). Both animals are described together by the single niphal participle ni.da.Chim ("going astray", H5080), plural to cover both nouns, using the niphal stem to present the animal as caught in a state of wandering rather than as an agent.

The narrative vav (ve., H9001) links this scenario to the consequence: hit.'a.lam.Ta ("you will hide yourself", H5956), a hithpael sequential perfect. The hithpael stem is reflexive, indicating self-concealment — the text does not simply say "you will ignore" but "you will hide yourself from them" (me.Hem, H9006 + H9038).

The final clause uses the construction ha.Shev te.shi.Ve.m — an absolute infinitive (ha.Shev, H7725G) placed before the finite hiphil imperfect of the same root (te.shi.Ve, H7725G) — a grammatical pattern that intensifies the verb, often rendered "you shall surely return" or "you must certainly return." The object suffix -m ("them", H9038) refers back to the straying animals, and the phrase closes with le.'a.Chi.kha ("to your countryman", H9005 + H0251I + H9021), naming the recipient of the returned animals.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the scenario with ἰδὼν ("having seen") and adds the phrase "ἐν τῇ ὁδῷ" ("in the way"), specifying a location not present in the Hebrew text. The LXX also uses ὑπερίδῃς ("you should overlook/disregard") for the Hebrew's hit.'a.lam.Ta ("hide yourself", H5956), shifting from the reflexive image of self-concealment to one of disregard. The Vulgate's præteribis ("you will pass by") likewise conveys passing by rather than the Hebrew's reflexive hiding. The LXX adds a final clause, καὶ ἀποδώσεις αὐτῷ ("and you shall give it back to him"), not present as a separate clause in the Hebrew, which ends with le.'a.Chi.kha ("to your countryman") as the object of the single emphatic return-verb construction.