Deuteronomy 28:15

וְהָיָה אִם־לֹא תִשְׁמַע בְּקוֹל יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ לִשְׁמֹר לַעֲשׂוֹת אֶת־כָּל־מִצְוֹתָיו וְחֻקֹּתָיו אֲשֶׁר אָנֹכִי מְצַוְּךָ הַיּוֹם וּבָאוּ עָלֶיךָ כָּל־הַקְּלָלוֹת הָאֵלֶּה וְהִשִּׂיגֽוּךָ׃

✦ Hebrew interlinear

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✦ The same verse in five languages

Hebrew

וְהָיָ֗ה אִם־לֹ֤א תִשְׁמַע֙ בְּקוֹל֙ יְהוָ֣ה אֱלֹהֶ֔יךָ לִשְׁמֹ֤ר לַעֲשׂוֹת֙ אֶת־כָּל־מִצְוֹתָ֣יו וְחֻקֹּתָ֔יו אֲשֶׁ֛ר אָנֹכִ֥י מְצַוְּךָ֖ הַיּ֑וֹם וּבָ֧אוּ עָלֶ֛יךָ כָּל־הַקְּלָל֥וֹת הָאֵ֖לֶּה וְהִשִּׂיגֽוּךָ׃

Greek (Septuagint)

Καὶ ἔσται ἐὰν μὴ εἰσακούσῃς τῆς φωνῆς Κυρίου τοῦ θεοῦ σου, φυλάσσεσθαι πάσας τὰς ἐντολὰς αὐτοῦ ὅσας ἐγὼ ἐντέλλομαί σοι σήμερον, καὶ ἐλεύσονται ἐπὶ σὲ πᾶσαι ἁ κατάραι αὗται καὶ καταλήμψονταί σε.

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

Latin (Vulgate)

Quod si audire nolueris vocem Domini Dei tui, ut custodias, et facias omnia mandata ejus et cæremonias, quas ego præcipio tibi hodie, venient super te omnes maledictiones istæ, et apprehendent te.

Spanish

Pero si no escuchas la voz del Señor, tu Dios, para cumplir con todos sus mandamientos y sus estatutos que hoy te ordeno, todas estas maldiciones caerán sobre ti y te alcanzarán.

Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)

Y será, si no oyeres la voz de Jehová tu Dios, para cuidar de poner por obra todos sus mandamientos y sus estatutos, que yo te intimo hoy, que vendrán sobre ti todas estas maldiciones, y te alcanzarán.

English

If, however, you do not obey the LORD your God by carefully following all His commandments and statutes I am giving you today, all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:

✦ What the text says

Summary

Deuteronomy 28:15 introduces the section of covenant curses by stating the negative condition: if the addressee does not listen to the voice of Yehovah his God, failing to keep and observe all the commandments and statutes given "this day," then all the curses that follow will come upon him and overtake him.

Key words

tish.Ma' ("you will listen", H8085H) — qal imperfect, expressing an ongoing or future action; here negated by lo' ("not", H3808) to form the conditional failure clause.
kOl ("[the] voice of", H6963A) — masculine singular construct, linking to Yehovah and forming the phrase "the voice of Yehovah your God," the object of listening.
sh.Mor ("take care", H8104J) and 'a.sOt ("observe", H6213A) — two qal infinitives joined by prepositions (li, la.), forming a doubled infinitive construction "to take care to observe," intensifying the sense of diligent compliance.
me.tza.ve. ("[am] commanding", H6680) — piel participle in construct form, describing an ongoing action performed by the speaker ("I am the one commanding you"), tied to 'a.no.Khi ("I", H0595) for emphasis.
hi.si.Gu. ("they will overtake", H5381) — hiphil sequential perfect, causative in stem, meaning the curses will actively cause themselves to reach and seize the addressee.

What the text says

The verse opens with ve. + ha.Yah ("and it will be", H1961), a narrative vav attached to a sequential perfect, a common formula in Hebrew that introduces a future situation dependent on a condition. The condition itself is marked by 'im- ("if", H0518A) followed by the negated imperfect lo' tish.Ma' ("you will not listen"). The object of this non-listening is be.kOl Yehovah 'e.lo.Hei.kha ("to the voice of Yehovah your God"), where kOl is in construct with the divine name, producing the idiom "voice of Yehovah" rather than a literal sound.

The purpose or content of listening is elaborated through two infinitives, li.sh.Mor and la.'a.sOt ("to take care to observe"), both governing the direct object marked by 'et- (H0853, untranslated) and the construct chain kol mitz.vo.Tav ve.chu.ko.Tav ("all his commandments and his statutes"). The relative clause 'a.Sher 'a.no.Khi me.tza.ve.kha ha.Yom ("which I am commanding you this day") uses a piel participle to present the commanding as a continuous or characteristic action of the speaker, not a single past event.

The consequence clause begins with another narrative vav and sequential perfect, ve.Va.'u ("and they will come", H0935G), followed by kol ha.ke.la.Lot ha.'E.leh ("all these curses") as subject, and closes with ve.hi.si.Gu.kha ("and they will overtake you"), a hiphil form indicating that the curses themselves will cause the overtaking — an active, causative image rather than a passive falling-upon.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders kOl Yehovah ("voice of Yehovah") as τῆς φωνῆς Κυρίου ("the voice of the Lord"), following the Hebrew construct pattern but substituting the title "Lord" for the tetragrammaton, consistent with its general practice. The Vulgate similarly uses "Domini" ("of the Lord"). Where the Hebrew has the doubled infinitive construction li.sh.Mor la.'a.sOt ("to take care to observe"), the LXX and Vulgate both compress this into a single infinitive phrase (φυλάσσεσθαι, "to keep"; ut custodias et facias, "that you may keep and do"), with the Vulgate preserving both verbs but the LXX using only one.

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