Deuteronomy 24:22

Summary

The verse instructs the addressee to remember having been a slave in Egypt, and grounds a present command in that remembered experience. The speaker identifies himself as the one issuing this instruction "therefore" (as a consequence of that remembered slavery).

Key words

• Za.khar.ta ("you will remember", H2142) — qal sequential perfect, continuing the narrative chain of instructions; expresses a future/ongoing obligation to recall.
• 'E.ved ("a slave", H5650) — masculine singular noun, the predicate describing the addressee's former status.
• ha.Yi.ta ("you were", H1961) — qal perfect, marks completed past state ("you were a slave"), contrasted with the present command.
• 'a.no.Khi ("I", H0595) — independent personal pronoun, emphasizing the speaker's identity as the one commanding.
• me.tza.ve. ("[am] commanding", H6680) — piel participle in construct form, presenting the command as an ongoing, present action ("the one commanding you") rather than a single past act.

What the text says

The sentence opens with the narrative vav on Za.khar.ta ("and you will remember", H2142), linking this clause to the preceding legal instructions as part of a continuing sequence. The clause introduced by ki- ("that", H3588A) functions here as a subordinating particle presenting the content of what is to be remembered: 'E.ved ("a slave", H5650) ha.Yi.ta ("you were", H1961) be. ("in", H9003) 'E.retz ("land of", H0776G) mitz.Ra.yim ("Egypt", H4714G) — a simple qal perfect construction stating a completed past condition, "you were a slave in the land of Egypt."

The second half pivots with 'al- ("there-", H5921A) plus ken ("-fore", H3651C), forming the compound adverb "therefore," which draws a logical consequence from the remembered fact. The subject 'a.no.Khi ("I", H0595) is stated explicitly as an independent pronoun, adding emphasis to the identity of the one giving the command, even though Hebrew verbs already encode person. The verb me.tza.ve. ("[am] commanding", H6680) is a piel participle, a verbal form indicating an action presented as ongoing or characteristic rather than a single completed event — grammatically it appears in construct form before the pronominal suffix Kha ("your", H9031), tightly binding subject and object into one phrase, "the one commanding you." The infinitive la. ("to", H9005) 'a.Sot ("do", H6213A) expresses purpose, "in order to do," governing the object phrase 'et- (object marker, H0853) ha. ("the", H9009) da.Var ("thing", H1697I) ha. ("the", H9009) Zeh ("this", H2088), "this thing" or "this matter."

Differences between versions

The LXX renders 'E.ved ("a slave", H5650) with οἰκέτης ("household servant"), a term with a slightly different semantic range than the Hebrew 'E.ved. The Vulgate uses servieris ("you served/were a slave") as a verb rather than a noun-plus-verb construction, shifting "you were a slave" into a single verbal form. Both LXX and Vulgate preserve the causal "therefore" structure (διὰ τοῦτο; idcirco) corresponding to 'al- ken.