Deuteronomy 24:5

כִּֽי־יִקַּח אִישׁ אִשָּׁה חֲדָשָׁה לֹא יֵצֵא בַּצָּבָא וְלֹא־יַעֲבֹר עָלָיו לְכָל־דָּבָר נָקִי יִהְיֶה לְבֵיתוֹ שָׁנָה אֶחָת וְשִׂמַּח אֶת־אִשְׁתּוֹ אֲשֶׁר־לָקָֽח׃ ס

✦ Hebrew interlinear

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✦ The same verse in five languages

Hebrew

כִּֽי־יִקַּ֥ח אִישׁ֙ אִשָּׁ֣ה חֲדָשָׁ֔ה לֹ֤א יֵצֵא֙ בַּצָּבָ֔א וְלֹא־יַעֲבֹ֥ר עָלָ֖יו לְכָל־דָּבָ֑ר נָקִ֞י יִהְיֶ֤ה לְבֵיתוֹ֙ שָׁנָ֣ה אֶחָ֔ת וְשִׂמַּ֖ח אֶת־אִשְׁתּ֥וֹ אֲשֶׁר־לָקָֽח׃ ס

Greek (Septuagint)

Ἐὰν δέ τις λάβῃ γυναῖκα προσφάτως, οὐκ ἐξελεύσεται εἰς τὸν πόλεμον, καὶ οὐκ ἐπιβληθήσεται αὐτῷ οὐδὲν πρᾶγμα· ἀθῷος ἔσται ἐν τῇ οἰκίᾳ αὐτοῦ ἐνιαυτὸν ἕνα· εὐφρανεῖ τὴν γυναῖκα αὐτοῦ ἢν ἔλαβεν.

Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0

Latin (Vulgate)

Cum acceperit homo nuper uxorem, non procedet ad bellum, nec ei quippiam necessitatis injungetur publicæ, sed vacabit absque culpa domi suæ, ut uno anno lætetur cum uxore sua.

Spanish

Cuando un hombre tome una nueva esposa, no saldrá en el ejército, ni se le asignará ningún negocio. Estará libre en su casa durante un año, y alegrará a la mujer que ha tomado.

Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)

Cuando tomare alguno mujer nueva, no saldrá á la guerra, ni en ninguna cosa se le ocupará; libre estará en su casa por un año, para alegrar á su mujer que tomó.

English

If a man is newly married, he must not be sent to war or be pressed into any duty. For one year he is free to stay at home and bring joy to the wife he has married. Additional Laws

✦ What the text says

Summary

The verse establishes an exemption for a newly married man: he is not obligated to go out with the army or be assigned any public duty for one year, so that he may devote that time to his wife.

Key words

yi.Kach ("he will take", H3947I) — qal imperfect, expressing a conditional future case ("if a man takes/marries").
tza.Va' ("army", H6635A) — masculine singular noun, the collective military body from which the man is excused.
da.Var ("thing", H1697J) — masculine singular construct after le.khol ("to any"), forming the phrase "any matter/duty."
na.Ki ("free", H5355A) — masculine singular adjective, describing the man's status of exemption.
si.Mach ("he will cause to rejoice", H8055) — piel (intensive/causative) sequential perfect, indicating the man actively brings joy, not merely experiences it.

What the text says

The sentence opens with the conditional particle ki ("if", H3588A) followed by yi.Kach ("he will take", H3947I), a qal imperfect verb setting up a hypothetical case: a man who marries a 'i.Shah chada.Shah ("new wife", H0802H/H2319H). Two negated imperfect verbs follow in parallel: lo' ye.Tze' ("he will not go out", H3318G) with ba.tza.Va' ("with the army", H6635A), and ve.lo' ya.'a.Vor ("and it will not pass", H5674A) 'a.Lav ("upon him", H5921A) le.khol da.Var ("for any matter", H1697J). This creates a double exemption structure — from military service and from any other assigned duty.

The adjective na.Ki ("free", H5355A) is placed emphatically before the verb yih.Yeh ("he will be", H1961), stressing the man's exempt condition "for his house" (le.vei.to, H1004B) during sha.Nah 'e.Chat ("one year", H8141/H0259). The narrative vav on si.Mach ("he will cause to rejoice", H8055) shifts the verb form to a sequential perfect, continuing the legal sequence begun by the imperfects. This verb is piel, an intensive/causative stem, meaning the man's role is actively to produce joy in his wife ('et 'ish.To, H0802H, marked by the object marker 'et, H0853), not simply to be near her. The clause closes with a relative clause, 'a.Sher la.Kach ("whom he has taken", H0834A/H3947I), the same root la.Kach used at the start, now in the qal perfect, marking completed action — the taking (marrying) already accomplished, contrasted with the imperfect used for the initial hypothetical case.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders tza.Va' ("army", H6635A) as πόλεμον ("war"), a more specific term than the Hebrew's general "army/host." The LXX also adds εὐφρανεῖ τὴν γυναῖκα ("he will cheer the wife") matching si.Mach closely, but the Vulgate expands the clause into "ut uno anno laetetur cum uxore sua" ("that for one year he may rejoice with his wife"), shifting the grammatical subject's action from causative ("cause her to rejoice," Hebrew piel) to a mutual/reciprocal rejoicing ("rejoice with"). The Vulgate also adds "nec ei quippiam necessitatis injungetur publicae" ("nor shall any public duty be imposed on him"), specifying "public" duty where the Hebrew le.khol da.Var ("for any matter", H1697J) is unspecified.

This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.