Deuteronomy 22:3

Summary

This verse extends the preceding law on lost animals to any lost item belonging to a fellow Israelite: a donkey, a garment, or anything else. The text commands that whatever is found must be returned, and explicitly forbids ignoring or concealing it.

Key words

• ta.'a.Seh ("you will do", H6213A) — qal imperfect, repeated three times to structure the verse as a triple parallel command ("thus you will do... thus you will do... thus you will do").
• 'a.ve.Dat ("the thing lost of", H0009) — feminine singular construct, forming a genitive chain with 'a.Chi.kha ("your countryman", H0251I + H9021), meaning "the lost thing belonging to your brother."
• to.Vad ("it will be lost", H0006) — qal imperfect, feminine subject, referring back to the lost item (aveDat) and introduced by the relative particle 'a.Sher ("which", H0834A).
• me.tza.Ta ("you will find it", H4672) — qal sequential perfect (vav-consecutive), continuing the narrative sequence after the imperfect verb, with the pronominal suffix -ah ("it/her", H9034) referring to the lost object.
• hit.'a.Lem ("hide yourself", H5956) — hithpael infinitive, reflexive stem, meaning to withdraw or conceal oneself from responsibility; governed by lo' tu.Khal ("you will not be able", H3808 + H3201).

What the text says

The verse is built on a threefold repetition of the phrase ve.khen ta.'a.Seh ("and thus you will do"), each time followed by a different object introduced with the preposition le. ("for"): the donkey (cha.mo.R-o, "his donkey"), the garment (sim.la.T-o, "his clothing"), and finally "every lost thing of your countryman" (khol-'a.ve.Dat 'a.Chi.kha). This structure moves from specific cases to a general principle, using the construct chain aveDat 'aChiykha ("the lost-thing of your brother") to bind the obligation to any object belonging to a fellow Israelite.

The relative clause 'a.Sher-to.Vad mi.Me.nu ("which will be lost from him") describes the object's loss using the qal imperfect to.Vad with feminine agreement matching aveDat. The switch to the sequential perfect me.tza.Ta-h ("and you will find it") marks the narrative continuation: the finder's action follows chronologically the item's loss. The final clause, lo' tu.Khal le.hit.'a.Lem ("you will not be able to hide yourself"), uses the hithpael infinitive hit.'a.Lem, a reflexive form suggesting an act of self-concealment or self-distancing — the text frames the prohibited behavior not simply as inaction but as an active withdrawal from responsibility toward the object's owner.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the sequence more compactly, using ὄνον ("donkey") for chamor but omitting a separate clause for the garment (simlah), merging it into the general category of "everything lost" (πᾶσαν ἀπωλίαν). The Vulgate follows a similar compression, using "de asino, et de vestimento, et de omni re" in a single list rather than the Hebrew's threefold repeated formula "thus you will do." For the closing prohibition, the Hebrew hit.'a.Lem ("hide yourself") is rendered in the LXX as ὑπεριδεῖν ("to overlook/disregard") and in the Vulgate as "ne negligas quasi alienam" ("do not neglect it as if it were another's"), both shifting the reflexive, self-concealing nuance of the Hebrew toward a more general sense of neglect or disregard.