Deuteronomy 28:60

Summary

Deuteronomy 28:60 states that the diseases of Egypt, which the addressee once feared, will be brought back and made to cling to him. The verse uses two sequential verb forms to describe both the return of these afflictions and their persistent attachment.

Key words

• he.Shiv ("he will bring back", H7725G) — hiphil (causative) sequential perfect; the causative form indicates an agent actively causing the diseases to return, not merely their spontaneous reappearance.
• mad.Veh ("disease of", H4064) — masculine singular construct noun; forms a construct chain with mitz.Ra.yim ("Egypt", H4714G), producing "disease of Egypt," specifying a particular category of affliction tied to that place.
• ya.Go.re.ta ("you were afraid", H3025) — qal perfect, second person masculine singular; marks a completed past state of fear, introduced by the relative particle 'a.Sher ("which", H0834A), which links this clause back to the diseases just mentioned.
• da.ve.Ku ("they will cling", H1692) — qal sequential perfect, third person plural; continues the narrative chain begun by he.Shiv, describing the ongoing result (clinging) that follows the causative bringing-back.
• mi.pe.nei.Hem ("from before them", H9006 + H6440L + H9028) — preposition plus construct noun plus pronominal suffix; literally "from the face of them," an idiomatic construction expressing fear directed at or away from these diseases.

What the text says

The verse is structured as two linked clauses joined by sequential perfect verb forms, a common construction in Biblical Hebrew narrative that presents a chain of consequences. The first clause centers on he.Shiv ("he will bring back," H7725G), a hiphil form that grammatically encodes causation — the subject actively causes the object (the diseases) to return onto the addressee, marked by the preposition be ("on/in," H9003) attached to the pronominal suffix kha ("you," H9031). The object itself, introduced by the untranslated marker 'et (H0853), is defined through a construct chain: kol-mad.Veh mitz.Ra.yim ("every disease of Egypt"), which ties the affliction specifically to Egypt as its place of origin or association.

The relative clause 'a.Sher ya.Go.re.ta mi.pe.nei.hem ("which you were afraid of them") uses the qal perfect ya.Go.re.ta to describe a prior emotional state completed before the time of the main verbs. The idiom mi.pe.nei ("from the face of," H6440L) with the suffix Hem ("them," H9028) expresses the object of that fear.

The second clause, ve.da.ve.Ku ba.kh ("and they will cling to you"), uses another qal sequential perfect, da.ve.Ku (H1692), continuing the same narrative sequence and describing an ongoing or resultant state — the diseases not only return but remain attached, expressed through the preposition ba ("in/to," H9003) with the second person suffix.

Differences between versions

The LXX adds the adjective πονηρὰν ("evil/severe"), qualifying the "pain" (ὀδύνην) of Egypt, an addition not present in the Hebrew mad.Veh ("disease," H4064). The Vulgate renders the Hebrew construct chain as "omnes afflictiones Ægypti" ("all the afflictions of Egypt"), matching the sense of kol-mad.Veh mitz.Ra.yim without additional qualifiers. The English translations BSB and SBLIBRE render da.ve.Ku ("they will cling," H1692) as "cling" and "aferrarán," respectively, while the LXX uses κολληθήσονται ("will be glued/joined"), a similar image of adhesion.