Deuteronomy 28:11

Summary

The verse states that Yehovah will cause abundance for good in three domains — offspring, livestock, and agricultural produce — within the land he swore to give to the ancestors of the addressee. It closes the section by naming the land itself as the setting for this abundance, tied back to the oath made to the fathers.

Key words

• ho.tir ("he will make abound", H3498) — hiphil causative verb in sequential perfect, indicating Yehovah as the active cause of surplus, continuing the narrative chain begun in earlier verses.
• to.Vah ("good", H2896C) — feminine singular noun following the preposition le ("to"), marking the purpose or direction of the abundance: it is "for good."
• f.Ri ("fruit of", H6529) — masculine singular construct noun repeated three times, each time linking to a different genitive noun (womb, livestock, ground), producing a triadic structure of blessing.
• 'a.da.Mah ("land", H0127G) — feminine singular noun with definite article ha (H9009), referring to the specific territory, distinct from 'ad.ma.Te.kha ("your ground", same root H0127G) used earlier for cultivated soil.
• nish.Ba' ("he swore", H7650) — niphal perfect verb, a completed action describing Yehovah's earlier oath, introduced by the relative particle 'a.Sher ("which", H0834A).

What the text says

The sentence is built around the verb ho.tir ("he will make abound", H3498), a hiphil form placing Yehovah as the grammatical subject and cause of the resulting abundance. The suffix kha ("you", H9031) attached to the verb marks the addressee as direct object — "he will make you abound." This abundance is qualified by the prepositional phrase le-to.Vah ("to/for good", H2896C), indicating that the surplus serves a beneficial purpose rather than being open-ended.

The threefold repetition of f.Ri ("fruit of", H6529) in construct with bit.ne.kha ("your womb", H0990H), ve.ham.te.kha ("your livestock", H0929), and 'ad.ma.te.kha ("your ground", H0127G) creates a parallel structure enumerating human offspring, animal offspring, and agricultural yield as the three areas of increase. Each construct phrase follows the same preposition bi ("in", H9003), syntactically presenting these three domains as coordinate instances of the single verb's action.

The final clause shifts to the land itself: 'al ha-'a.da.Mah ("on the land", H0127G) introduces the geographic setting, further specified by the relative clause 'a.Sher nish.Ba' Yehovah la-'a.vo.Tei.kha ("which Yehovah swore to your ancestors", H7650, H0001G). The niphal perfect nish.Ba' marks this oath as a prior, completed event, and the infinitive La.tet ("to give", H5414G) with the final suffixed preposition La.kh ("to you", H9031) expresses the purpose of that oath — the land was sworn "to give to you."

Differences between versions

The LXX renders Yehovah as κύριος ὁ θεός σου ("the Lord your God"), adding "your God" where the Hebrew has only the divine name Yehovah (H3068G). The Vulgate uses Dominus consistently for the tetragrammaton without the added qualifier. The LXX also renders the threefold f.Ri ("fruit of") construction with varied Greek terms (ἐκγόνοις, "offspring," and γενήμασιν, "produce") rather than repeating one word, and reorders the three domains (womb, land, livestock) differently from the Hebrew sequence (womb, livestock, ground).