Deuteronomy 28:45
וּבָאוּ עָלֶיךָ כָּל־הַקְּלָלוֹת הָאֵלֶּה וּרְדָפוּךָ וְהִשִּׂיגוּךָ עַד הִשָּֽׁמְדָךְ כִּי־לֹא שָׁמַעְתָּ בְּקוֹל יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ לִשְׁמֹר מִצְוֹתָיו וְחֻקֹּתָיו אֲשֶׁר צִוָּֽךְ׃
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✦ The same verse in five languages
וּבָ֨אוּ עָלֶ֜יךָ כָּל־הַקְּלָל֣וֹת הָאֵ֗לֶּה וּרְדָפ֙וּךָ֙ וְהִשִּׂיג֔וּךָ עַ֖ד הִשָּֽׁמְדָ֑ךְ כִּי־לֹ֣א שָׁמַ֗עְתָּ בְּקוֹל֙ יְהוָ֣ה אֱלֹהֶ֔יךָ לִשְׁמֹ֛ר מִצְוֹתָ֥יו וְחֻקֹּתָ֖יו אֲשֶׁ֥ר צִוָּֽךְ׃
καὶ ἐλεύσονται ἐπὶ σὲ πᾶσαι αἱ κατάραι αὗται καὶ καταδιώξονταί σε καὶ καταλήμψονταί, σε, ἕως ἂν ἐξολεθρεύσῃ σε καὶ ἕως ἂν ἀπολέσῃ σε· ὅτι οὐκ εἰσήκουσας τῆς φωνῆς κυρίου τοῦ θεοῦ σου, φυλάξαι τὰς ἐντολὰς αὐτοῦ καὶ τὰ δικαιώματα ὅσα ἐνετείλατο σοι.
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
Et venient super te omnes maledictiones istæ, et persequentes apprehendent te, donec intereas: quia non audisti vocem Domini Dei tui, nec servasti mandata ejus et cæremonias, quas præcepit tibi.
Todas estas maldiciones vendrán sobre ti, te perseguirán y te alcanzarán, hasta que seas destruido, porque no escuchaste la voz de Yehová tu Dios, para guardar sus mandamientos y sus estatutos que te ordenó.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Y vendrán sobre ti todas estas maldiciones, y te perseguirán, y te alcanzarán hasta que perezcas; por cuanto no habrás atendido á la voz de Jehová tu Dios, para guardar sus mandamientos y sus estatutos, que él te mandó:
All these curses will come upon you. They will pursue you and overtake you until you are destroyed, since you did not obey the LORD your God and keep the commandments and statutes He gave you.
✦ What the text says
Summary
The verse states that all the curses previously listed will come upon, pursue, and overtake the addressee until destruction occurs. It grounds this outcome in a stated cause: failure to listen to the voice of Yehovah and to keep his commandments and statutes.
Key words
- Va.'u ("they will come", H0935G) — qal sequential perfect, continuing a narrative chain of consequence; grammatically links this verse to prior curses as their culmination.
- re.da.Fu. ("they will pursue", H7291) — qal sequential perfect; depicts the curses as active agents chasing the addressee, not merely static conditions.
- hi.si.Gu. ("they will overtake", H5381) — hiphil (causative) sequential perfect; the causative stem intensifies the verb, framing the curses as forcibly catching up to the person.
- hi.sha.me.Da ("being destroyed", H8045) — niphal infinitive, passive/reflexive sense; marks the endpoint ("until") of the pursuit as a state undergone rather than caused by the subject's own action.
- sha.Ma'.ta ("you listened", H8085H) — qal perfect, completed action; introduces the causal clause explaining why the curses arrive, tied to the negation lo' ("not", H3808).
What the text says
The verse is built as three sequential perfect verbs — Va.'u ("they will come"), re.da.Fu. ("they will pursue"), and hi.si.Gu. ("they will overtake") — all governed by the same subject, kol-ha-qelalot ha-'elleh ("all these curses", H3605/H7045/H0428), and all directed at the addressee via the pronominal suffix -kha ("your/you", H9031) repeated three times. This triple repetition of the second-person suffix emphasizes the curses' focus on a single addressee. The sequence culminates with 'ad hisamedakh ("until you are destroyed"), where the niphal infinitive construction marks destruction as the terminus of the pursuit rather than a separate self-inflicted act.
The second half of the verse shifts to a causal clause introduced by ki ("for/if", H3588A), explaining the reason for this outcome: lo' shama'ta be-qol Yehovah 'eloheikha ("you did not listen to the voice of Yehovah your God"). The construct chain qol Yehovah 'eloheikha ("voice of Yehovah your God") ties obedience specifically to Yehovah as source. The purpose infinitive li-shmor ("to keep", H8104G) introduces the object of that non-listening: mitzvotav ve-chuqqotav ("his commandments and his statutes"), both construct plural nouns with third-person suffixes referring back to Yehovah, closed by the relative clause 'asher tzivakh ("which he commanded you"), using the piel perfect tzi.Va ("he has commanded", H6680) to stress the intensive, authoritative nature of the command.
Differences between versions
The LXX renders hi.sha.me.Da ("being destroyed") with two verbs, ἐξολεθρεύσῃ ("utterly destroy") and ἀπολέσῃ ("destroy/lose"), each introduced by ἕως ἂν ("until"), doubling the Hebrew's single infinitival clause. The Vulgate uses "donec intereas" ("until you perish"), a single verb matching the Hebrew's single clause more closely than the LXX's doubling.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.