Deuteronomy 28:57

וּֽבְשִׁלְיָתָהּ הַיּוֹצֵת׀ מִבֵּין רַגְלֶיהָ וּבְבָנֶיהָ אֲשֶׁר תֵּלֵד כִּֽי־תֹאכְלֵם בְּחֹֽסֶר־כֹּל בַּסָּתֶר בְּמָצוֹר וּבְמָצוֹק אֲשֶׁר יָצִיק לְךָ אֹיִבְךָ בִּשְׁעָרֶֽיךָ׃

✦ Hebrew interlinear

Tap a word to see its entry

✦ The same verse in five languages

Hebrew

וּֽבְשִׁלְיָתָ֞הּ הַיּוֹצֵ֣ת׀ מִבֵּ֣ין רַגְלֶ֗יהָ וּבְבָנֶ֙יהָ֙ אֲשֶׁ֣ר תֵּלֵ֔ד כִּֽי־תֹאכְלֵ֥ם בְּחֹֽסֶר־כֹּ֖ל בַּסָּ֑תֶר בְּמָצוֹר֙ וּבְמָצ֔וֹק אֲשֶׁ֨ר יָצִ֥יק לְךָ֛ אֹיִבְךָ֖ בִּשְׁעָרֶֽיךָ׃

Greek (Septuagint)

καὶ τὸ χόριον αὐτῆς τό ἐξελθὸν διὰ τῶν μηρῶν αὐτῆς καὶ τὸ τέκνον ὃ ἂν τέκῃ· καταφάγεται γὰρ αὐτὰ διὰ τὴν ἔνδειαν πόντων κρυφῇ ἐν τῇ στενοχωρίᾳ σου καὶ ἐν τῆ θλίψει σου ᾖ θλίψει σε ὁ ἐχθρός σου ἐν ταῖς πόλεσίν σου·

Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0

Latin (Vulgate)

et illuvie secundarum, quæ egrediuntur de medio feminum ejus, et super liberis qui eadem hora nati sunt. Comedent enim eos clam propter rerum omnium penuriam in obsidione et vastitate, qua opprimet te inimicus tuus intra portas tuas.

Spanish

hacia su joven que sale de entre sus pies, y hacia sus hijos que da a luz; porque los comerá a escondidas por falta de todo en el asedio y en la angustia con que los angustiará su enemigo en sus puertas.

Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)

Y para con su chiquita que sale de entre sus pies, y para con sus hijos que pariere; pues los comerá escondidamente, á falta de todo, en el cerco y en el apuro con que tu enemigo te oprimirá en tus ciudades.

English

the afterbirth that comes from between her legs and the children she bears, because she will secretly eat them for lack of anything else in the siege and distress that your enemy will inflict on you within your gates.

✦ What the text says

Summary

This verse continues a description (part of a larger passage on siege conditions) of a woman who, due to extreme scarcity during a siege, secretly consumes her own afterbirth and the children she has borne. The clause specifies the source of the desperate act — chOser ("lack") kol ("everything") — and situates it within the enemy's siege at the city's gates.

Key words

shil.ya.Tah ("afterbirth", H7988) — feminine singular noun in construct with the pronominal suffix "her," identifying the specific body part/substance under discussion.
yo.Tzet ("goes forth", H3318G) — qal participle feminine singular, describing an ongoing or characteristic action ("the one going forth"), modifying shil.ya.Tah.
tokh.Lem ("she will eat them", H0398) — qal imperfect, third person feminine, with a third-person plural suffix "them" (H9038), indicating a future/ongoing action performed on the previously mentioned afterbirth and children.
cho.ser-kol ("lack of everything", H2640 + H3605) — construct chain: cho.ser ("lack of") governs kol ("everything"), forming the idiom "utter lack" or "lack of all things."
ya.Tzik ("he will bring distress", H6693) — hiphil (causative) imperfect, third person masculine, describing the enemy's action of causing distress/pressure.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence structure continues from the preceding verse (28:56), attaching two prepositional phrases with ve. ("and") — u.ve.shil.ya.Tah ("and concerning her afterbirth") and u.ve.va.Neih ("and concerning her children") — both governed by an earlier verb (not present in this verse) describing the woman's stinginess or hostility toward these things. The afterbirth is further specified by the participle ha.yo.Tzet ("the one going forth"), a qal feminine singular form functioning as a relative clause: "which goes forth from between her feet" (mi.Bein rag.Leiha).

The causal clause introduced by ki ("for", H3588A) explains the reason: tokh.Lem ("she will eat them"), where the plural suffix -m ("them") refers back grammatically to both the afterbirth and the children mentioned earlier. This eating occurs be.cho.ser-kol ("in lack of everything") and ba.Sater ("in secrecy", H5643A) — two adverbial phrases describing the manner and cause. The final clause, introduced by the relative 'a.Sher ("which/who", H0834A), uses the hiphil verb ya.Tzik ("he will bring distress") to describe the enemy's action, with the enemy identified via a qal participle construct 'o.yiv.Kha ("your enemy," literally "the one being hostile to you").

Differences between versions

The LXX renders shil.ya.Tah ("her afterbirth") as τὸ χόριον αὐτῆς ("her chorion/membrane") and ha.yo.Tzet ("the one going forth") with τό ἐξελθὸν διὰ τῶν μηρῶν ("that which came out through her thighs"), specifying "thighs" where the Hebrew has rag.Leiha ("her feet/legs", H7272). The Vulgate similarly uses feminum ("thighs") for the same Hebrew term. Additionally, where the Hebrew has be.cho.ser-kol ("in lack of everything"), the LXX reads διὰ τὴν ἔνδειαν πόντων ("because of the want of all things"), a comparable but not identical construction.

This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.