Deuteronomy 28:18

Summary

Deuteronomy 28:18 pronounces a curse formula extending over four categories: human offspring, agricultural produce, and two kinds of livestock offspring. The verse uses a single passive participle at the head of the sentence to govern all four construct chains that follow.

Key words

• 'a.Rur ("[will be] cursed", H0779) — qal passive participle, masculine singular, placed first in the sentence; it functions as the operative word governing all following nouns, without a separate verb "to be" in the Hebrew (the participle itself carries the predication).
• pe.ri- ("fruit of", H6529) — masculine singular construct noun, appears twice in the verse (also at position 6), each time opening a construct chain ("fruit of X").
• vit.ne.kha ("your womb", H0990H + H9021) — feminine singular construct noun with 2nd person masculine singular suffix, forming the phrase "fruit of your womb" together with pe.ri-.
• she.Gar ("young of", H7698) — feminine singular construct noun, introduces the third curse-category, referring to offspring of cattle.
• 'ash.te.Rot ("young ones of", H6251) — feminine plural construct noun, introduces the fourth category, offspring of the flock.

What the text says

The verse consists of a single participle, 'a.Rur ("cursed", H0779), followed by four coordinated construct phrases, each naming a category subject to the curse: "fruit of your womb" (pe.ri- vit.ne.kha), "fruit of your ground" (u.pe.Ri 'ad.ma.Te.kha), "young of your cattle" (she.Gar 'a.la.Fei.kha), and "young ones of your flock" (ve.'ash.te.Rot tzo.Ne.kha). Because Hebrew places the participle first and does not repeat it before each noun phrase, one single predication ("cursed") extends grammatically across all four items, linked by the conjunction ve. ("and", H9002) before the second and fourth items.

Each of the four phrases follows the construct pattern "X of Y," where the first noun (fruit, young of, young ones of) is grammatically bound to the second (womb, ground, cattle, flock), the latter carrying the second-person masculine singular suffix -kha ("your", H9021) throughout, addressing a singular male addressee. The construct chains create parallelism: human fertility and land fertility are paired first, followed by two paired terms for livestock offspring (cattle and flock).

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the singular Hebrew participle 'a.Rur as a neuter plural adjective, ἐπικατάρατα ("cursed things"), agreeing grammatically with the plural nouns that follow (τὰ ἔκγονα, τὰ γενήματα, τὰ βουκόλια, τὰ ποίμνια), whereas the Hebrew uses one singular participle governing four singular/plural construct phrases without repeating the predicate. The Vulgate follows a structure closer to the Hebrew, using the singular Maledictus only with the first phrase (fructus ventris tui) and then listing the remaining items without repeating the verb, relying on juxtaposition. The BSB and SBLIBRE both convert the participial construction into a finite future/passive verb ("will be cursed" / "serán maldecidos"), a grammatical shift not present in the Hebrew, which uses a participle rather than a finite verb form.