Deuteronomy 28:35

Summary

This verse describes Yehovah striking the addressee with a severe skin affliction (shechin, H7822) located on the knees and legs, spreading from the sole of the foot to the top of the head, from which recovery is stated as impossible.

Key words

• yakekha (ya.ke. + khah, "he will strike you", H5221) — Hiphil (causative) imperfect verb with attached pronominal suffix "you", indicating Yehovah as the causal agent producing the affliction, not merely permitting it.
• shechin ("boil", H7822) — masculine singular noun, paired with the adjective ra' ("bad/evil", H7451A), forming the construct phrase "evil boil," describing a specific type of skin condition rather than a general illness.
• birkayim ("knees", H1290) — feminine dual noun, marking the paired body part explicitly (both knees), matched later by shoqayim ("legs", H7785), also dual.
• tukhal ("you will be able", H3201) — Qal imperfect, negated by lo' ("not", H3808), forming "you will not be able," which governs the following infinitive.
• herafe' ("to be healed", H7495) — Niphal infinitive (passive/reflexive), meaning the subject cannot cause himself to be healed nor be healed by another; the passive voice removes any healing agent from the sentence.
• qodqodekha ("your scalp/crown", H6936) — masculine singular construct noun with possessive suffix, marking the upper endpoint of the merism "from sole of foot to scalp."

What the text says

The verse opens with a verb-subject-object sequence typical of Biblical Hebrew narrative and predictive clauses: yakekha Yehovah ("he will strike you, Yehovah") places the divine name as the explicit grammatical subject acting upon the addressee via the causative Hiphil form. The prepositional phrase bi-shechin ra' ("with an evil boil") specifies the instrument/means of the strike. The locations affected are marked by two parallel prepositional phrases using 'al ("on", H5921A) — "on the knees and on the legs" — both nouns appearing in the dual form, which in Hebrew grammar indicates natural pairs (both knees, both legs) without needing a numeral.

The relative clause introduced by 'asher ("which", H0834A) modifies the preceding affliction, stating that healing is impossible. The negated verb lo'-tukhal ("you will not be able") governs the infinitive le-herafe' ("to be healed"), and the Niphal form of this infinitive grammatically excludes any healing agent — the text does not say who might heal, only that healing does not occur. The final clause is a merism, a rhetorical device using two extremes (mikaf raglekha, "from the sole of your foot", and 'ad qodqodekha, "to your scalp"), both in construct form with second-person possessive suffixes, to indicate totality: the condition covers the entire body from bottom to top.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the Hebrew finite verb yakekha as an optative infinitive construction (pataxai, "may he strike"), shifting the grammatical mood toward a wish or curse-formula rather than a direct future statement. The Vulgate's percutiat similarly uses a subjunctive ("may he strike"), diverging from the Hebrew imperfect's more direct future/ongoing sense. Additionally, the LXX and Vulgate specify "thighs" (knēmas / suris) where some English translations (BSB) render the Hebrew shoqayim as "thighs" while others (SBLIBRE, RV1909) render it "piernas/legs" — reflecting translational variation in identifying the exact body part covered by H7785.