Deuteronomy 28:49

Summary

The verse describes Yehovah bringing a distant nation against the addressee, one that swoops down like an eagle from the far end of the earth, and whose language the addressee will not comprehend. The imagery combines geographic distance ("from the end of the earth") with the speed and suddenness of a bird of prey.

Key words

• yiSa ("he will raise up", H5375H) — qal imperfect, third person masculine; the verb's basic sense is "lift up" or "raise," used here with the extended meaning of bringing/mobilizing a nation against the subject.
• goy ("a nation", H1471A) — appears twice (words 5 and 17), each time as an indefinite masculine singular noun, first introducing the invading nation and then reintroducing it with the added clause about its incomprehensible language.
• yid'eh ("it swoops down", H1675) — qal imperfect, third person masculine singular, describing the swift downward motion of the following noun nasher ("eagle").
• nasher ("eagle", H5404) — definite (marked by the article ha, H9009), masculine singular; the point of comparison for the manner in which the nation arrives.
• tishma' ("you will understand", H8085J) — qal imperfect, second person masculine singular, negated by lo' ("not", H3808), stating the addressee's inability regarding the nation's leshono ("its language", H3956H + H9023).

What the text says

The sentence opens with the verb yiSa ("he will raise up", H5375H) followed immediately by the subject Yehovah (H3068G) and the prepositional phrase 'aleikha ("upon you", H5921A + H9031), establishing Yehovah as the agent acting against the addressee. The object is goy ("a nation", H1471A), qualified by two prepositional phrases of distance: merachok ("from a distance", H7350) and miktzeh ha'aretz ("from the end of the earth", H7097A + H0776G), both reinforcing the remoteness of this nation's origin.

The comparative clause ka'asher yid'eh hanasher ("just as the eagle swoops down", H9004 + H0834D + H1675 + H5404) uses the verb yid'eh (H1675) to describe a swift, predatory descent, with the definite eagle serving as the standard of comparison for how the nation will arrive. The verse closes by repeating goy (H1471A) in an appositional restatement, followed by a relative clause: asher lo tishma' leshono ("which you will not understand its language", H0834A + H3808 + H8085J + H3956H + H9023). The construct form leshono ("its language") ties the pronominal suffix directly to the nation, marking linguistic incomprehensibility as a defining trait of the invader.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew verb yiSa (H5375H, "raise up") is rendered by the LXX as epaxei ("will bring upon") and by the Vulgate as adducet ("will bring"), both shifting from the literal sense of lifting/raising to a more general sense of bringing or leading. Similarly, tishma' (H8085J), whose Strong root typically covers "hear," is translated by the LXX as akousēi ("will hear") but by the Vulgate as intelligere ("to understand"), showing a divergence in how the verb's semantic range was rendered — auditory perception versus comprehension.