Deuteronomy 23:25

Summary

The verse permits a person to enter their neighbor's standing grain field and pluck ears of grain by hand, but forbids using a sickle on that neighbor's grain. The two clauses are grammatically parallel, both governed by the conditional ki ("if", H3588A) and referring to the same qamat re'ekha ("standing grain of your neighbor", H7054 + H7453).

Key words

• qamat ("standing grain of", H7054) — feminine singular construct noun, appearing twice (positions 4 and 18), anchoring both the permitted and forbidden actions to the same object.
• re'ekha ("your neighbor", H7453 + H9021) — construct noun with pronominal suffix, repeated identically in both halves of the verse, emphasizing that the field belongs to another person.
• qataphta ("you will pluck off", H6998) — qal sequential perfect, continuing the narrative sequence begun by tavo ("you will go", H0935G); this verb form links the entering and the plucking as one continuous permitted action.
• taniph ("you will wield", H5130B) — hiphil (causative) imperfect, describing the causative act of swinging or wielding a sickle; the hiphil stem marks this as an intentional, effortful action distinct from the simple qal plucking.
• cherem* — wait, correct: chermesh ("a sickle", H2770) — masculine singular noun, the specific tool whose use is prohibited, contrasted with the bare hand (yad, H3027G) used for plucking.

What the text says

The verse is structured as a conditional sentence introduced by ki ("if", H3588A), followed by two coordinated actions joined by the narrative vav on ve-qataphta ("and you will pluck off", H6998): entering the field and plucking grain by hand. This is grammatically permitted. The second half of the verse, introduced by ve-chermesh lo taniph ("and a sickle you will not wield", H2770 + H3808 + H5130B), reverses the negation-object order, placing "sickle" first for emphasis, and uses the hiphil stem of nuph to denote the deliberate causative act of swinging a tool. The repetition of qamat re'ekha ("standing grain of your neighbor") at both the beginning and end of the verse frames the entire statement, marking the field as belonging to another person throughout both the permission and the prohibition.

The contrast drawn by the Hebrew grammar is between yad ("hand", H3027G), used for the permitted qal action of plucking (qataphta), and chermesh ("sickle", H2770), the tool forbidden for the hiphil action of wielding (taniph). The verse thus distinguishes manual, incidental gathering from tool-assisted harvesting through both vocabulary and verbal stem selection.

Differences between versions

The Septuagint (LXXSWETE) diverges substantially from the Hebrew: it speaks of entering a vineyard (σταφυλὴν, "grapes") rather than a grain field, permits eating grapes to satisfaction, and prohibits placing them into a vessel (ἄγγος) rather than prohibiting the use of a sickle. The Vulgate (VULCLEM) follows the Hebrew closely, rendering qamat re'ekha as "segetem amici tui" ("the grainfield of your friend"), melilot as "spicas" ("ears of grain"), and chermesh as "falce" ("sickle"), matching the Hebrew's contrast between hand-plucking and sickle use.