Deuteronomy 28:48

Summary

The verse describes the consequence of the curses in Deuteronomy 28: subjection to enemies sent by Yehovah, marked by hunger, thirst, nakedness, and total deprivation, culminating in an iron yoke placed on the neck "until he has destroyed you."

Key words

• 'a.vad.Ta ("you will serve", H5647G) — qal sequential perfect, continuing the chain of future consequences begun earlier in the passage.
• 'o.ye.Vei.kha ("enemies", H0341) — qal participle plural construct with suffix "your", literally "the ones hating you", in construct relation to the following clause.
• ye.shal.le.Che.nu ("he will send forth him", H7971G) — piel imperfect, intensive stem indicating deliberate, forceful sending, with 3ms object suffix "him" referring to the enemy.
• Cho.ser Kol ("lack of everything", H2640 + H3605) — construct chain, "lack of" bound to "everything", expressing total deprivation rather than a specific shortage.
• hish.mi.D-o ("in his destroying", H8045) — hiphil infinitive with 3ms suffix, causative form: "until his causing to perish you", governed by the preposition 'ad ("until", H5704).

What the text says

The sentence is built as a sequential chain using vav plus perfect verbs (ve-'a.vad.Ta, "and you will serve"; ve-na.Tan, "and he will put"), a common structure in Hebrew for describing consecutive future events tied to prior conditions. The subject shifts: first "you" (second person, the addressee) serves the enemies, then Yehovah (Yah.weh, H3068G) is named as the one who "sends forth" (ye.shal.le.Che.nu, piel imperfect) those enemies against "you" (Ba.kh, "on you"). The four deprivations — ra.'Av ("hunger", H7458), tza.Ma' ("thirst", H6772), 'ei.Rom ("nakedness", H5903), and Cho.ser Kol ("lack of everything", H2640+H3605) — are each introduced by the preposition be ("in") joined by ve ("and"), forming a paratactic list rather than a subordinated description.

The final clause returns to Yehovah as subject of na.Tan ("he will put", qal sequential perfect) placing an "'ol of bar.Zel" (construct: "yoke of iron", H5923+H1270) on "the neck of you" (construct chain tza.va.Re.kha). The temporal limit is marked by 'ad ("until", H5704) followed by the hiphil infinitive hish.mi.D-o ("his destroying", causative form), meaning the yoke persists until the destroying is complete, with the object marker 'o.Ta-kh ("you") specifying the recipient of that destruction.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders 'oyeveikha ("your enemies", plural) as singular τοῖς ἐχθροῖς σου in some manuscript traditions but the Swete text given here uses plural dative "τοῖς ἐχθροῖς". The Vulgate uses the singular "inimico tuo" ("your enemy"), diverging from the Hebrew plural construct 'o.ye.Vei.kha. The LXX also renders the Hebrew's four-part list (hunger, thirst, nakedness, lack of everything) with only two elements, λιμῷ ("famine") and ἐκλείψει πάντων ("failure of all things"), omitting explicit terms for thirst and nakedness found in the Hebrew and Vulgate.