Deuteronomy 30:17
וְאִם־יִפְנֶה לְבָבְךָ וְלֹא תִשְׁמָע וְנִדַּחְתָּ וְהִֽשְׁתַּחֲוִיתָ לֵאלֹהִים אֲחֵרִים וַעֲבַדְתָּֽם׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
וְאִם־יִפְנֶ֥ה לְבָבְךָ֖ וְלֹ֣א תִשְׁמָ֑ע וְנִדַּחְתָּ֗ וְהִֽשְׁתַּחֲוִ֛יתָ לֵאלֹהִ֥ים אֲחֵרִ֖ים וַעֲבַדְתָּֽם׃
καὶ καὶ ἐὰν μεταστῇ ἡ καρδία σου καὶ μὴ εἰσακούσῃς, καὶ πλανηθεὶς B προσκυνήσῃς θεοῖς ἑτέροις καὶ λατρεύσῃς αὑτοῖς,
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
Si autem aversum fuerit cor tuum, et audire nolueris, atque errore deceptus adoraveris deos alienos, et servieris eis:
Pero si tu corazón se aparta y no quieres escuchar, sino que te dejas arrastrar y adoras a otros dioses y les sirves,
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Mas si tu corazón se apartare, y no oyeres, y fueres incitado, y te inclinares á dioses ajenos, y los sirvieres;
But if your heart turns away and you do not listen, but are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them,
✦ What the text says
Summary
The verse presents a conditional scenario: if the heart turns away and refuses to listen, the consequence is being drawn aside into bowing down to other gods and serving them. It is structured as a chain of conditions leading to a described outcome.
Key words
- yif.Neh ("it will turn away", H6437G) — qal imperfect, describing the heart's potential future action of turning away.
- tish.Ma' ("you will listen", H8085G) — qal imperfect negated by lo' ("not", H3808), denoting failure to listen.
- ni.dach.Ta ("you will be drawn aside", H5080) — niphal (passive/reflexive) sequential perfect, marking a shift from active refusal to being acted upon.
- hish.ta.cha.Vi.ta ("you will bow down", H7812) — hishtaphel sequential perfect, continuing the narrative chain begun by ni.dach.Ta.
- 'a.vad.Ta ("you will serve", H5647H) — qal sequential perfect with pronominal suffix -m ("them", H9038), closing the sequence of consequences.
What the text says
The verse opens with the conjunction ve'im ("and if", H9002 + H0518A), introducing a conditional clause governed by the imperfect verb yif.Neh ("it will turn away", H6437G), whose subject is levav-kha ("your heart", H3824 + H9021), a construct form meaning "heart of you." This is paired with a second imperfect, tish.Ma' ("you will listen", H8085G), negated by lo' ("not", H3808), forming the double condition: the heart turning away AND not listening.
From this point, the grammar shifts. The narrative vav (H9001) attaches to a sequence of perfect verbs — ni.dach.Ta, hish.ta.cha.Vi.ta, and 'a.vad.Ta — rather than continuing with imperfects. This sequential perfect construction (vav + perfect) is typically used in Biblical Hebrew to mark consequence or continuation within a conditional chain, so that each verb builds on the previous one: being drawn aside leads to bowing down, which leads to serving. The verb ni.dach.Ta ("you will be drawn aside", H5080) is in the niphal stem, a passive/reflexive form, which grammatically distinguishes it from the active verbs surrounding it — the subject undergoes the action of being drawn rather than initiating it. The final verb 'a.vad.Ta ("you will serve", H5647H) carries the pronominal suffix -m ("them", H9038), referring back to elohim acherim ("other gods", H0430J + H0312), a plural noun-adjective pair specifying the object of the bowing and serving.
Differences between versions
The LXX renders the Hebrew niphal ni.dach.Ta ("you will be drawn aside", H5080) with the participle planētheis ("having been deceived/led astray"), introducing a nuance of deception not explicitly present in the Hebrew passive form. The Vulgate similarly adds errore deceptus ("deceived by error"), reinforcing this interpretive addition of deception that the Hebrew text does not lexically specify.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.