Deuteronomy 28:58

Summary

The verse opens a conditional clause: if the addressee does not take care to carry out all the words of "this law" written in "this book," the consequence relates to the failure to fear the "glorious and awesome" name — identified as Yehovah ("Yehovah", H3068) 'Elohei-kha ("your God", H0430). The verse itself sets up the condition; the punishment follows in subsequent verses.

Key words

• tish.Mor ("you will take care", H8104J) — qal imperfect, 2nd person masculine singular, expressing an ongoing or future condition of "keeping/guarding."
• la'a.Sot ("to observe", H6213A) — qal infinitive with prefixed preposition la ("to", H9005), forming a purpose/complement to the verb of "taking care."
• ha.ke.tu.Vim ("that are written", H3789) — qal passive participle, masculine plural, modifying "the words of the law" as a description of their fixed, written state.
• le.yir.'ah ("to fear", H3372G) — qal infinitive with prefixed le ("to"), marking purpose: the goal of keeping the law is tied to "fearing" the name.
• nikh.Bad ("glorious", H3513G) and no.Ra' ("awesome", H3372H) — both niphal participles, masculine singular, describing the "name" (ha.Shem, H8034) in a passive/reflexive sense ("the one being glorified/being feared").

What the text says

The clause begins with the conditional particle 'im ("if", H0518A) followed by the negation lo' ("not", H3808), forming the standard construction for a negative condition: "if you do not...". The main verb tish.Mor ("you will take care", H8104J) is qal imperfect, governing the infinitive la'a.Sot ("to observe", H6213A), a common Hebrew pattern where one verb of attention/guarding is completed by an infinitive of action — literally "you will not guard to do."

The object of this obedience is kol div.Rei ha.to.Rah ha.Zot ("all the words of this law"), where div.Rei ("words of", H1697G) is a plural construct noun linked to ha.to.Rah ("the law", H8451). This phrase is further specified by the passive participle ha.ke.tu.Vim ("that are written", H3789), locating the words ba.Se.fer ha.Zeh ("in this book", H5612H) — a self-referential expression pointing to the written document containing the law.

The second infinitive, le.yir.'ah ("to fear", H3372G), introduces a second purpose clause, this time directed at ha.Shem ("the name", H8034), modified by two niphal participles, nikh.Bad ("glorious", H3513G) and no.Ra' ("awesome", H3372H), both grammatically passive/reflexive forms describing the name as an entity that is glorified and feared. The name is then explicitly identified through the appositional phrase 'et Yehovah 'Elohei-kha ("Yehovah your God", H3068 + H0430), using the object marker 'et (H0853) to mark this proper name as the referent of "the name."

Differences between versions

The LXX renders tish.Mor ("you will take care") as "εἰσακούσῃς" (you shall hearken/obey), shifting the sense from "guarding/attending to" toward "obeying/listening." The LXX also renders the two niphal participles nikh.Bad and no.Ra' as adjectives "ἔντιμον" (honored) and "θαυμαστὸν" (marvelous), rather than passive-participle constructions. The Vulgate follows the Hebrew structure more closely with "custodieris et feceris" (you shall keep and do) and "gloriosum et terribile" (glorious and terrible), preserving the double-verb and double-adjective pattern found in the Hebrew.