Deuteronomy 24:19

Summary

The verse instructs that when a person harvests his field and forgets a sheaf there, he must not go back to retrieve it. Instead, the forgotten sheaf is left for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, with a stated purpose: so that Yehovah the person's God may bless him in all the work of his hands.

Key words

• ki ("if", H3588A) — introduces the conditional clause that frames the whole verse as a case law: "if you harvest..."
• shakhachTa ("you will forget", H7911) — qal sequential perfect; it continues the narrative chain begun by tikTzor, marking forgetting as part of the ongoing legal scenario rather than a separate event.
• tashuv ("you will return", H7725G) — qal imperfect negated by lo' ("not", H3808), forming the prohibition "you shall not return" to retrieve the sheaf.
• lema'an ("so that", H4616) — subordinating particle introducing the purpose clause that closes the verse.
• yevarekh ("he may bless", H1288) — piel jussive of the root for blessing, expressing an intended or desired result following from obedience to the preceding instruction.

What the text says

The verse is built as a conditional legal sentence. The protasis begins with ki ("if") plus tikTzor ("you will harvest", qal imperfect), setting the scenario: harvesting one's own sadeh ("field", H7704G, appearing twice with pronominal suffix "your"). The verb shakhachTa ("you will forget") is a sequential perfect, a form that continues the temporal/logical chain from the preceding imperfect, so the forgetting of the 'omer ("sheaf", H6016A) is presented as following naturally within the same scenario rather than as a separate hypothetical.

The prohibition lo tashuv leKachto ("you shall not return to fetch it") uses an infinitive construct (kachto, H3947G) with a pronominal suffix "it," expressing purpose ("to fetch it"). The disposition of the sheaf is stated with the verb yihyeh ("it will belong/be", H1961, qal imperfect), governing three datives introduced by le-: ger ("sojourner", H1616), yatom ("fatherless one", H3490), and almanah ("widow", H490). The final clause, introduced by lema'an ("so that"), uses the piel jussive yevarekhkha ("he may bless you") with Yehovah Eloheikha ("Yehovah your God") as subject, followed by bekhol ma'aseh yadeikha ("in all the work of your hands"), a construct chain literally "in all the-work-of the-hands-of-your."

Differences between versions

The Hebrew opens with the conditional particle ki ("if"), while the Vulgate renders it as "Quando" ("when"), shifting the nuance from conditional to temporal. The Vulgate also expands the simple Hebrew verb yihyeh ("it will be/belong") into an explicit permissive construction, "advenam... auferre patieris" ("you shall permit the stranger... to take it away"), adding an act of allowing that is not overtly expressed by the Hebrew verb. The LXX renders the divine name as κύριος ὁ θεός σου ("Lord your God"), corresponding to Hebrew Yehovah Eloheikha, and adds the connective δὲ ("but/and") at the start, not present in the Hebrew ki.