Deuteronomy 28:7

Summary

The verse describes Yehovah causing the enemies who rise against the addressee (Israel, in second-person singular) to be struck down before him. Those enemies will advance in a single unified direction but scatter and flee in seven directions.

Key words

• yiTten ("he will make/give", H5414) — qal imperfect, third person masculine singular; sets Yehovah as the grammatical subject acting upon the enemies.
• 'oyeVeikha ("your enemies", H0341) — qal participle construct, masculine plural, "the ones being hostile," functioning as a substantive noun with a second-person suffix.
• niggaFim ("defeated/struck", H5062) — niphal participle, masculine plural; the passive form marks the enemies as recipients of the action rather than agents.
• deRekh 'eChad ("one direction", H1870/H0259) — singular noun phrase describing the manner of the enemies' approach.
• shiv'Ah deraKhim ("seven directions", H7651/H1870) — plural noun phrase describing the manner of their flight, contrasting with the singular approach.

What the text says

The sentence opens with yiTten Yehovah ("Yehovah will make/give"), placing the divine name as the acting subject of a qal imperfect verb. The direct object is marked by 'et (H0853, untranslated) followed by 'oyeVeikha ("your enemies"), itself a qal participle used substantively — literally "those who are enemies to you." This noun phrase is further qualified by ha-qqaMim 'aLeikha ("the ones who arise against you"), another qal participle, describing the enemies' hostile action.

The enemies are then described as niggaFim leFaneikha ("defeated before you"), using a niphal participle — the passive/reflexive stem — which grammatically marks the enemies as undergoing the action of being struck rather than performing it. This shifts the enemies from active subjects (rising up) to passive objects (being defeated) within the same clause structure.

The final two clauses use a numerical contrast built through prepositional phrases: be-Derekh 'eChad ("in one direction") governs the verb ye'tze'U ("they will come out," qal imperfect), while u-ve-shiv'Ah deraKhim ("and in seven directions") governs yaNusu ("they will flee," qal imperfect). The grammatical parallelism — singular path of approach versus plural (sevenfold) paths of flight — is achieved purely through the contrast between the singular 'eChad and the plural deraKhim, without additional descriptive vocabulary.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders yiTten as paradō ("he will hand over"), a different verbal image than the Hebrew "make/give," and adds ho theos sou ("your God") after Kyrios, an expansion not present in the Hebrew text's Yehovah alone. The LXX also renders niggaFim ("defeated") as syntetrimmenous ("crushed/shattered"), a more intense image than the Hebrew niphal participle conveys. The Vulgate's corruentes ("falling/collapsing") likewise differs in nuance from the Hebrew's passive "being struck."