Deuteronomy 28:61

Summary

The verse extends the preceding curses by stating that Yehovah will also bring upon the addressee every sickness and plague not explicitly recorded in "this book of the law," continuing until the addressee is destroyed. It functions as a catch-all clause covering afflictions beyond those already enumerated in the text.

Key words

• gam ("also", H1571) — adverb marking this as an additional, intensifying clause beyond what precedes.
• cho.li ("sickness", H2483) and ma.kah ("plague", H4347) — both masculine/feminine singular nouns in construct chains with kol ("every", H3605), forming the totalizing phrase "every sickness and every plague."
• kha.tuv ("is written", H3789) — qal passive participle, describing a completed state of being recorded, negated by lo' ("not", H3808).
• ya'.lem ("he will bring up/upon them", H5927H) — hiphil (causative) imperfect verb with 3rd person masculine plural suffix, indicating Yehovah as the causative agent who "brings up" these afflictions onto the addressee.
• hi.sha.me.dakh ("your being destroyed", H8045) — niphal (passive/reflexive) infinitive with 2nd person masculine singular suffix, marking the temporal endpoint "until you are destroyed."

What the text says

The verse opens with gam ("also", H1571), signaling continuation and addition to a list of curses already stated in the surrounding context. The double construct phrase kol-choli ve-khol-makah ("every sickness and every plague") uses kol ("every", H3605) twice to create a comprehensive, unrestricted category — not limited to specific named ailments but covering all possible sicknesses and plagues.

The relative clause asher lo' khatuv be-sefer ha-torah ha-zot ("which is not written in the book of this law") specifies that these afflictions are precisely those NOT enumerated elsewhere in the text — the participle khatuv ("is written", H3789) being negated by lo' (H3808) creates a category of unwritten, unlisted curses, implying the written curses are not exhaustive.

The verb ya'lem ("he will bring up them", H5927H) is a hiphil imperfect, a causative form indicating that Yehovah (Yehovah, H3068) is the direct agent causing these afflictions to come "upon" ('aleikha, H5921A + suffix) the addressee. The suffix -kha ("your", H9031) marks the addressee as singular masculine, consistent with the second-person singular address pattern of the chapter. The clause concludes with the temporal marker 'ad ("until", H5704) followed by the niphal infinitive hishamedkha ("your being destroyed", H8045), a passive/reflexive form indicating the addressee undergoes destruction, marking the durational endpoint of the affliction.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders Yehovah (H3068) as Kyrios ("Lord"), following the standard Greek substitution for the tetragrammaton. The Hebrew ya'lem ("he will bring up them", H5927H) is translated in the LXX as epaxei ("he will bring upon"), and in the Vulgate as inducet ("he will bring in/induce") — both versions render the causative sense but without the literal "bring up" imagery embedded in the Hebrew root H5927H. The Hebrew singular suffixes (-kha, -kh, second person masculine singular) are rendered as singular "you" (σέ, te) in LXX and Vulgate, matching the SBLIBRE Spanish rendering's shift to plural "ustedes" as a divergence in target-language number, though this is a translational choice rather than a difference in the source text itself.