Deuteronomy 25:19

Summary

The verse describes a future situation: once Yehovah gives Israel rest from surrounding enemies in the land he is granting as an inheritance, Israel is commanded to erase the remembrance of Amalek from under the heavens, with an explicit reminder not to forget this task.

Key words

• ha.Ni.ach ("gives rest", H5117) — hiphil infinitive (causative), expressing that Yehovah causes rest, not merely that rest occurs; combined with be ("when") it forms a temporal clause, "when he causes rest."
• timcheh ("you will wipe out", H4229A) — qal imperfect, second person masculine; marks a future/ongoing action forming the main command of the apodosis (the "then" clause after the "when" clause).
• zekher ("remembrance of", H2143) — masculine singular construct noun, linking directly to Amalek (H6002G); it denotes the memory or trace of Amalek, not the nation's physical existence per se.
• tishkach ("you will forget", H7911) — qal imperfect negated by lo' ("not", H3808); grammatically a future-tense statement functioning as a prohibition, "you will not forget."
• nachalah ("an inheritance", H5159) — feminine singular noun describing the legal/covenantal status of the land being given.

What the text says

The verse opens with ve.Hayah ("and it will be", H1961), a sequential perfect that continues a narrative chain and introduces a temporal protasis: "and it will be, when...". This protasis is built with be + the hiphil infinitive ha.Ni.ach, meaning the clause hinges on Yehovah's causative action of giving rest — not rest as a passive state but rest actively brought about. The object of that rest-giving is specified twice: "from all your enemies from around" and "in the land which Yehovah your God is giving you to possess," the latter using the participle no.Ten (H5414G), indicating an action in progress or imminent.

The apodosis begins with timcheh, an imperfect verb carrying future or durative force, governing the direct object marked by 'et (H0853) and the construct phrase zekher 'Amalek — "the remembrance of Amalek." The construct state ties zekher tightly to Amalek, so the object to be wiped out is specifically the trace or memory associated with that name, described further as being "from under the heavens" (mi.Tachat ha.Shamayim). The final clause, lo' tishkach, uses a negated imperfect rather than an imperative, so grammatically it reads as a statement of future non-forgetting rather than a direct command form, though functionally it reinforces the instruction.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate renders the object of erasure as nomen ejus ("his name") rather than reflecting zekher ("remembrance of", H2143) as a distinct noun tied to Amalek; the Hebrew construct zekher 'Amalek specifies "remembrance," while the Vulgate's phrasing shifts the referent to "name." Additionally, the Vulgate's closing line, Cave ne obliviscaris ("beware, lest you forget"), uses an imperative-based warning construction, whereas the Hebrew lo' tishkach is a negated imperfect verb, a grammatically different structure expressing the same prohibition through future-tense negation rather than direct command.