Deuteronomy 30:12

Summary

Deuteronomy 30:12 states that "it" — the commandment referred to by the feminine pronoun hi' ("it", H1931) — is not located in the heavens. The verse then quotes a hypothetical objection: someone might ask who could ascend to heaven, retrieve it, proclaim it, and only then allow it to be performed.

Key words

• hi' ("it", H1931) — feminine singular pronoun; its gender points back to a feminine antecedent (not present in this verse) that the text treats as reachable or not.
• le'mor ("to say", H0559) — Qal infinitive construct; functions as a formula introducing reported/quoted speech, not tied to a specific grammatical person.
• ya'aleh ("he will go up", H5927) — Qal imperfect third person; expresses a future/potential action within the rhetorical question "who will go up."
• yiqqacheha ("and he may take it", H3947) — Qal imperfect with prefixed vav, plus 3rd person feminine singular object suffix -ha ("it/her"); continues the chain of purpose clauses following the question.
• yashmi'enu ("and he may make us hear", H8085) — Hiphil imperfect with vav and 1st person plural suffix; the causative (Hiphil) stem distinguishes this from a simple "hear," meaning "cause to hear" or "proclaim."

What the text says

The sentence opens with a negation, lo' ("not", H3808), followed by a prepositional phrase va-shamayim ("in the heavens", H8064) and the pronoun hi' ("it", H1931). This pronoun is feminine, which means its antecedent — not repeated in this verse — must also be feminine; the clause simply asserts a location is not "in the heavens."

The infinitive le'mor ("to say", H0559) introduces a quoted rhetorical question that does not specify a grammatical subject — it functions as a general introductory marker for speech, similar to "saying" in a narrative report. The question itself uses a chain of four Qal/Hiphil imperfect verbs joined by vav: ya'aleh ("will go up"), yiqqacheha ("may take it"), yashmi'enu ("may make us hear it"), and na'aseinah ("may do it"). Each carries a 3rd or 1st person suffix referring back to the feminine object ("it") from the opening clause. The directional suffix -mah on ha-shamayemah ("to the heavens", H8064 + H9011) marks motion toward the heavens, reinforcing the verb ya'aleh ("will go up").

The Hiphil stem of yashmi'enu ("make us hear", H8085) is causative, distinct from a basic "hear" — the subject would need to actively produce sound or communication for others to hear, not merely hear it himself.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders le'mor ("to say", H0559) with the participle λέγων ("saying"), which grammatically anchors the speech to an implied subject, whereas the Hebrew infinitive is impersonal. The Vulgate makes this subject explicit with ut possis dicere ("so that you might say"), introducing a second-person addressee not marked in the Hebrew verb forms.

For yashmi'enu ("he may make us hear it", H8085), the LXX has ἀκούσαντες ("having heard"), a participle describing simple hearing rather than a causative "make heard." The Vulgate similarly reads audiamus ("let us hear"), also shifting away from the causative sense present in the Hebrew Hiphil stem.