Deuteronomy 29:27

Summary

The verse states that Yehovah's anger burned against "that land," with the purpose or result being the bringing upon it of every curse written in "this book." The clause explains the consequence described in the preceding context.

Key words

• yichar ("it burned", H2734) — qal verb describing the kindling of anger, narrative form continuing the sequence of events.
• 'af ("anger of", H0639G) — masculine singular noun in construct state, linking directly to Yehovah, literally "the nose/anger of Yehovah."
• ha'aretz ("the land", H0776G) — feminine singular noun with the article, further specified by the demonstrative hiv' ("that", H1931).
• l'havi' ("to bring", H0935P) — hiphil (causative) infinitive construct, expressing purpose: "in order to bring."
• ha-ketuvah ("that is written", H3789) — qal passive participle feminine singular, modifying ha-kelalah ("the curse", H7045) and indicating a fixed, already-recorded state.

What the text says

The sentence opens with the narrative construction va-yichar 'af Yehovah ("and the anger of Yehovah burned"), a common Hebrew idiom where "anger" ('af, literally "nose") functions as the grammatical subject of the verb yichar ("burned"). This idiom does not have a direct one-word equivalent in English; translations render it as "the anger... burned" or "he was angry," but the Hebrew literally presents the anger itself as the acting entity.

The phrase ba'aretz ha-hiv' ("against that land") uses the demonstrative hiv' ("that", H1931) to specify a particular land already identified in the preceding context, rather than introducing a new referent. The infinitive l'havi' ("to bring", H0935P) is in the hiphil (causative) stem, indicating that the anger's burning results in an action being brought about — the bringing of the curse. This infinitive construction expresses purpose or result without specifying a separate subject; the causative sense ("to cause to come") is built into the verb form itself.

The object clause 'et-kol-ha-kelalah ha-ketuvah ba-sefer ha-zeh ("all the curse that is written in this book") uses the passive participle ketuvah ("is written", H3789) to describe the curse as something already fixed in written form, referring back to "this book" (ha-sefer ha-zeh) as a specific, identified document within the narrative.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the Hebrew ba-sefer ha-zeh ("in this book") as ἐν τῷ βιβλίῳ τοῦ νόμου τούτου ("in this book of the law"), adding the word "law" (νόμου) which has no corresponding word in the Hebrew text provided. The Vulgate follows the Hebrew more closely with in hoc volumine ("in this volume/book"), without the addition of "law." Additionally, the Hebrew kol-ha-kelalah uses a singular collective noun ha-kelalah ("the curse", H7045), while the LXX employs the plural τὰς κατάρας ("the curses") and the Vulgate omnia maledicta ("all curses/curses"), both rendering the singular Hebrew noun as plural.