Deuteronomy 26:10

Summary

The speaker declares that he has brought the first of the fruit of the ground that Yehovah gave him, then is instructed to set it down before Yehovah and to bow down before Yehovah. The verse closes the declaration formula spoken by the worshiper bringing firstfruits and shifts into instructions for the accompanying ritual action.

Key words

• he.Ve.ti ("I have brought", H0935P) — hiphil perfect, causative "I have caused to come," marking the action as completed by the speaker himself.
• re.Shit ("first of", H7225G) — feminine singular construct, linking directly to the next noun to form "first of the fruit."
• na.Ta.tah ("you have given", H5414G) — qal perfect second person, a completed action attributed to Yehovah within the relative clause.
• hi.nach.T ("you will set down", H5117) — hiphil sequential perfect, continuing the narrative chain after the declaration, instructing a future/consequential action.
• hish.ta.cha.Vi.ta ("you will bow down", H7812) — hishtaphel sequential perfect, the final act in the sequence, grammatically tied to the preceding verb by the narrative vav.

What the text says

The verse opens with ve ("and", H9002) plus 'a.Tah ("therefore", H6258) and the interjection hi.Neh ("here!", H2009), marking a transition and drawing attention to the declared action. The main clause uses he.Ve.ti ("I have brought", H0935P), a hiphil perfect verb, to state that the speaker has caused the "first of the fruit of the ground" (re.Shit H7225G construct with pe.Ri H6529 construct with ha.'a.da.Mah H0127G) to be brought. This object is qualified by a relative clause introduced by 'a.Sher ("which", H0834A): "which you have given to me, Yehovah" — using na.Ta.tah (H5414G), a qal perfect, and closing with the vocative Yah.weh (H3068G), addressed directly.

The second half of the verse shifts grammatical mode: the narrative vav (H9001) attached to hi.nach.T ("you will set down", H5117) and again to hish.ta.cha.Vi.ta ("you will bow down", H7812) signals sequential perfects, a construction that continues a chain of action following the initial declaration. Both verbs take the phrase li.f.Nei ("before", from H6440G construct with preposition) followed by Yah.weh 'e.lo.Hei.kha ("Yehovah your God", H3068G + H0430G construct + H9021 suffix "your"). The repetition of "before Yehovah your God" at the end of each clause reinforces the location toward which the action of setting down and bowing is directed. The suffix o ("it/his", H9033) on hi.nach.T-o refers back to the object previously brought, i.e., the fruit that was placed in a container implied by context.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the phrase differently at the end, adding "γῆν ῥέουσαν γάλα καὶ μέλι" ("a land flowing with milk and honey"), a phrase not present in the Hebrew text of this verse as given. The LXX also omits an explicit equivalent to the second half concerning hi.nach.T ("you will set down", H5117), moving directly to "you will bow down" (προσκυνήσεις). The Vulgate renders he.Ve.ti ("I have brought") as "offero" ("I offer"), a present-tense verb rather than a perfect, and renders hi.nach.T-o as "dimittes eas" ("you will leave them"), using a plural pronoun where the Hebrew suffix o (H9033) is singular.