Deuteronomy 28:46

Summary

The verse states that the curses previously described will function as ot ("a sign", H0226G) and mofet ("a wonder", H4159) upon the addressee and his offspring, permanently. It closes the long curse-list of Deuteronomy 28 by declaring their lasting demonstrative effect.

Key words

• haYu ("they will become", H1961) — qal sequential perfect, third person plural; continues the narrative chain from the preceding verses, indicating a resulting state that follows from what was just described.
• ve.Kha ("in/among you", H9031) — preposition be + second-person masculine singular suffix, marking the addressee as the location where the sign/wonder takes place.
• 'ot ("a sign", H0226G) — feminine singular noun, one of two predicate nouns describing what the curses become.
• mofet ("a wonder", H4159) — masculine singular noun, paired with 'ot to form a fixed two-part expression.
• zar.'a.Kha ("your offspring", H2233H + H9021) — construct noun with pronominal suffix, extending the scope of the sign/wonder beyond the addressee to his descendants.
• 'ad-o.Lam ("until perpetuity", H5704 + H5769G) — preposition + noun, marking temporal duration without a fixed endpoint.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence opens with ve.haYu ("and they will become"), a verb in the qal sequential perfect that grammatically continues the sequence of the preceding verses in Deuteronomy 28, which list a series of curses. The subject of haYu is those curses, now referred to collectively. The verb takes two locative/directional prepositional phrases marking where this "becoming" occurs: ve.Kha ("in/among you") and, later, u.ve.zar.'a.Kha ("and among your offspring"), extending the applicability from the addressee to his descendants.

The predicate consists of two prepositional phrases built with le ("into/for"): le.'ot ("into a sign") and u.le.mofet ("and into a wonder"). This le + noun construction is a common Hebrew way of expressing "to become X" or "to serve as X," rather than a simple equative "is." The pairing of 'ot and mofet is a fixed two-noun expression, both singular, joined by the conjunction ve.

The final phrase, 'ad-o.Lam ("until perpetuity"), uses a preposition of temporal extent plus a noun denoting unbounded duration, indicating that the sign/wonder status is not limited to a specific period.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the two singular Hebrew nouns 'ot ("a sign") and mofet ("a wonder") as plural: sēmeia ("signs") and terata ("wonders"). The Vulgate follows this plural rendering with signa ("signs") and prodigia ("wonders"), diverging from the singular forms found in the Hebrew text.