Deuteronomy 26:16

Summary

Deuteronomy 26:16 states that on "this day," Yehovah the God of the addressee commands the observance of statutes and judgments, and instructs that they be kept and performed with the whole heart and the whole being.

Key words

• ha.Yom ha.Zeh ("the day" + "this", H3117L / H2088) — the phrase "this day" fronts the sentence, marking the moment of commanding as a specific, singled-out occasion rather than a general statement.
• me.tza.ve.kha ("[is] commanding you", H6680) — a Piel participle in construct with the pronominal suffix kha ("your", H9031). The participle form expresses an ongoing or present-tense action ("is commanding") rather than a completed one, and the Piel stem intensifies the verbal action of tzavah ("to command").
• chu.Kim ("statutes", H2706G) and mish.pa.Tim ("judgments", H4941G) — both masculine plural nouns, each preceded by the object marker 'et (H0853) and the definite article, marking them as specific, definite objects of the commanding.
• sha.mar.Ta ("you will take care", H8104J) and 'a.Si.ta ("you will observe", H6213A) — both Qal sequential perfects (vav-consecutive), continuing the narrative/instructional sequence begun by the participle clause; this verbal chain links the act of commanding to the resulting obligation to keep and do.
• be.khol le.va.ve.kha / u.ve.khol naf.she.kha ("with all your heart" / "and with all your being", H3824 / H5315G) — both nouns are in construct with khol ("all", H3605), forming an emphatic totality expression repeated in parallel structure.

What the text says

The verse opens with a temporal phrase, ha.Yom ha.Zeh ("this day"), placed before the subject, which foregrounds the moment as the referential "now" of the speech. The subject Yehovah 'e.lo.Hei.kha ("Yehovah your God") governs the participle me.tza.ve.kha ("commanding you"), a present/durative form built on the Piel stem, indicating an act underway rather than a past completed decree. The object of this commanding is introduced by the infinitive la.'a.Sot ("to do/in doing", H6213A), followed by two paired direct objects marked with 'et: ha.chu.Kim ha.'Elleh ("these statutes") and ha.mish.pa.Tim ("the judgments"), both definite and plural, presented as a fixed, named body of content.

The sentence then shifts grammatically: two sequential perfect verbs, ve.sha.mar.Ta ("and you will keep") and ve.'a.Si.ta ("and you will do"), pick up the thread after the infinitive clause, forming a chain that moves from the act of commanding to the resulting duty of keeping and performing "them" ('o.Tam, referring back to the statutes and judgments). This chain is closed by the double phrase be.khol le.va.ve.kha u.ve.khol naf.she.kha ("with all your heart and with all your being"), where the repeated construct with khol ("all") produces a parallel emphasis on totality across two paired nouns, lev ("heart") and nefesh ("being/soul").

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the participle clause as an aorist (ἐνετείλατο, "he commanded"), presenting the divine instruction as a completed past act rather than the ongoing participle sense visible in the Hebrew me.tza.ve.kha. The Vulgate similarly uses the perfect praecepit ("he has commanded"). The Hebrew verbs sha.mar.Ta and 'a.Si.ta are second-person singular, while the LXX shifts to plural forms (φυλάξεσθε, ποιήσετε, "you [pl.] will keep/do"), a grammatical-number divergence not present in the Hebrew text.