Deuteronomy 28:2

Summary

Deuteronomy 28:2 states that all the enumerated blessings will come upon the addressee and overtake him, on condition that he listens to the voice of Yehovah his God. The verse links two sequential verbs of arrival/pursuit to a conditional clause introduced by ki ("if", H3588A).

Key words

• Va.'u ("they will come", H0935G) — qal sequential perfect, third person plural; continues the narrative sequence begun in the previous verse, describing the blessings as the grammatical subject that acts upon the addressee.
• hi.si.Gu ("they will overtake", H5381) — hiphil (causative) sequential perfect; the causative stem intensifies the verb of "reaching/attaining," so that the blessings are pictured as actively catching up to the person rather than simply arriving.
• ki ("if" / "that", H3588A) — conditional/subordinating particle; introduces the condition that governs whether the preceding sequence of arrival and overtaking occurs.
• tish.Ma' ("you will listen", H8085H) — qal imperfect, second person masculine singular; denotes an ongoing or future act of listening, forming the conditional protasis.
• Kol ("[the] voice of", H6963A) — construct noun, masculine singular; links to Yehovah to form the phrase "voice of Yehovah," the object of the listening.

What the text says

The verse opens with the narrative vav on u (H9001) attached to Va.'u (H0935G), continuing a chain of consequence from the preceding verses: "and they will come." The subject of this verb is deferred until kol-ha.be.ra.Khot ha.'E.leh ("all these blessings"), a construct phrase (H3605 + H1293 + H0428) meaning literally "all of the blessings, these." The verb Va.'u thus precedes its subject, a common feature of Biblical Hebrew word order, where the finite verb typically opens the clause.

A second verb, hi.si.Gu (H5381), joined by another narrative vav, repeats the action with a causative (hiphil) stem, expressing that the blessings will "overtake" or "cause to reach" the addressee — a stronger image than mere arrival, suggesting pursuit until contact is made. Both verbs carry the second-person suffix kha (H9031), "you" (masculine singular), marking the recipient of the action.

The clause introduced by ki (H3588A) shifts from narrative to condition: "if you will listen." The verb tish.Ma' (H8085H) is an imperfect form, which can denote future or continuous action, here functioning as the condition attached to the preceding promise. The phrase be.Kol Yehovah 'e.lo.Hei.kha ("to the voice of Yehovah your God") uses two chained construct nouns, Kol (H6963A) and 'e.lo.Hei (H0430G), followed by the pronominal suffix kha (H9021), producing the sense of a single reference: "the voice of Yehovah your God."

Differences between versions

The LXX renders hi.si.Gu ("they will overtake") with εὑρήσουσίν ("they will find"), a softer verb than the Hebrew's causative sense of pursuit and contact. The Vulgate's apprehendent ("they will seize/grasp") is closer to the Hebrew's forceful nuance. The Vulgate also renders be.Kol Yehovah 'e.lo.Hei.kha as præcepta ejus ("his precepts"), replacing "voice" with "precepts," a divergence not found in the Hebrew or the LXX, which both preserve "voice" (φωνῆς / Kol).