Deuteronomy 30:16

אִם־תִּשְׁמַע אֶל מִצְוֹת יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ אֲשֶׁר אָנֹכִי מְצַוְּךָ הַיּוֹם לְאַהֲבָה אֶת־יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ לָלֶכֶת בִּדְרָכָיו וְלִשְׁמֹר מִצְוֹתָיו וְחֻקֹּתָיו וּמִשְׁפָּטָיו וְחָיִיתָ וְרָבִיתָ וּבֵֽרַכְךָ יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ בָּאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר־אַתָּה בָא־שָׁמָּה לְרִשְׁתָּֽהּ׃

Hebrew interlinear

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The same verse in five languages

Hebrew

אִם־תִּשְׁמַע אֶל מִצְוֹת יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ אֲשֶׁ֨ר אָנֹכִ֣י מְצַוְּךָ֮ הַיּוֹם֒ לְאַהֲבָ֞ה אֶת־יְהוָ֤ה אֱלֹהֶ֙יךָ֙ לָלֶ֣כֶת בִּדְרָכָ֔יו וְלִשְׁמֹ֛ר מִצְוֹתָ֥יו וְחֻקֹּתָ֖יו וּמִשְׁפָּטָ֑יו וְחָיִ֣יתָ וְרָבִ֔יתָ וּבֵֽרַכְךָ֙ יְהוָ֣ה אֱלֹהֶ֔יךָ בָּאָ֕רֶץ אֲשֶׁר־אַתָּ֥ה בָא־שָׁ֖מָּה לְרִשְׁתָּֽהּ׃

Greek (Septuagint)

ἐὰν εἰσακούσῃς τὰς ἐντολὰς κυρίου τοῦ θεοῦ σου ἃς ἐγὼ ἐντέλλομαί σοι σήμερον, ἀγαπᾷν κύριον τὸν θεόν σου, πορεύεσθαι ἐν πόσαις ταῖς ὁδοῖς αὐτοῦ, φυλάσσεσθαι τὰ δικαιώματα αὐτοῦ καὶ τὰς κρίσεις αὐτοῦ· καὶ ζήσεσθε καὶ πολλοὶ ἔσεσθε, καὶ εὐλογήσει σε Κύριος ὁ θεός σου ἐν πάσῃ τῆ γῇ εἰς ἣν εἰσπορεύῃ ἐκεῖ κληρονομεῖν αὐτήν.

Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0

Latin (Vulgate)

ut diligas Dominum Deum tuum, et ambules in viis ejus, et custodias mandata illius ac cæremonias atque judicia: et vivas, atque multiplicet te, benedicatque tibi in terra, ad quam ingredieris possidendam.

Spanish

Porque hoy te ordeno que ames a Yehová, tu Dios, que sigas sus caminos y guardes sus mandamientos, sus estatutos y sus ordenanzas, para que vivas y te multipliques, y para que Yehová, tu Dios, te bendiga en la tierra a la que entras a poseer.

Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)

Porque yo te mando hoy que ames á Jehová tu Dios, que andes en sus caminos, y guardes sus mandamientos y sus estatutos y sus derechos, para que vivas y seas multiplicado, y Jehová tu Dios te bendiga en la tierra á la cual entras para poseerla.

English

For I am commanding you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, statutes, and ordinances, so that you may live and increase, and the LORD your God may bless you in the land that you are entering to possess.

What the text says

Summary

The verse opens a conditional clause: if the addressee listens to the commandments of Yehovah, defined through three infinitive actions (loving, walking, keeping), a chain of consequence follows — life, increase, and blessing in the land he is entering to possess. The Hebrew structure ties obedience (protasis) to result (apodosis) through a sequence of grammatical forms not fully preserved in some translations.

Key words

  • 'im ("if", H0518A) — the conditional particle opening the verse; it establishes the entire following material as a protasis (condition), not a command in itself.
  • tishma' ("you will listen", H8085H) — qal imperfect, expressing the ongoing/future act of listening/obeying that the condition depends on.
  • le'ahavah ("to love", H0157G) — qal infinitive construct with prefix le-; together with lalekhet ("to walk", H1980I) and lishmor ("to keep", H8104G), these three infinitives specify what "listening to the commandments" consists of.
  • chayita ("you will live", H2421) — qal sequential perfect (vav-consecutive), the first term of the result-chain that follows the conditional protasis.
  • u-verakhekha ("and he will bless you", H1288) — piel sequential perfect; the final result-verb, with Yehovah as subject and the addressee as object via the suffix -kha ("you", H9031).

What the text says

The sentence is built as a single extended conditional period. The particle 'im (H0518A) introduces the condition, carried by the imperfect tishma' (H8085H), "you will listen/obey." What this listening entails is unpacked through a triad of infinitives — le'ahavah (H0157G, "to love"), lalekhet (H1980I, "to walk"), lishmor (H8104G, "to keep") — each governing a further object: love directed at Yehovah 'eloheikha ("Yehovah your God", H3068G/H0430G), walking "in his ways" (bidrakhav, H1870G with 3ms suffix), and keeping "his commandments... statutes... judgments" (H4687, H2708, H4941G, each with 3ms suffix referring back to Yehovah, not to the "I" of verse start).

After this triad, the grammar shifts from infinitives to sequential perfects (vav-consecutive): ve-chayita ("and you will live", H2421), ve-ravita ("and you will increase", H7235A), u-verakhkha... Yehovah ("and Yehovah will bless you", H1288). This chain marks the apodosis — the result that follows if the condition is met — culminating in Yehovah as blessing-agent in "the land" (ba'aretz, H0776G) which the addressee is "about to go" (va' participle, H0935G) to "take possession of" (rishtah, H3423H infinitive with 3fs suffix referring to the land).

Differences between versions

The Hebrew and LXX both preserve the conditional opening — Hebrew 'im (H0518A) and Greek ἐὰν ("if"). The Vulgate, however, begins with ut ("so that/in order that"), converting the clause into a purpose construction rather than a condition. This shift is carried into RV1909, BSB, and SBLIBRE, which render the opening as "For I command you today to love..." rather than "If you listen... to love...", reflecting the Vulgate's structure rather than the conditional syntax visible in the Hebrew and the LXX text given.

This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.