Deuteronomy 30:8

Summary

Deuteronomy 30:8 describes a future sequence of actions: turning back, listening to the voice of Yehovah, and doing all his commandments. The verse closes the chain begun in earlier verses by anchoring obedience specifically to what is being commanded "this day" (hayyom).

Key words

• ta.Shuv ("you will turn", H7725J) — qal imperfect, marking the first action of the sequence as future/ongoing, with no stated object of return in the Hebrew itself.
• sha.ma'.Ta ("you will listen", H8085H) — qal sequential perfect (vav + perfect continuing an imperfect), used in Biblical Hebrew to chain a subsequent action onto the preceding verb ta.Shuv.
• 'a.Si.ta ("you will do", H6213A) — second sequential perfect, extending the chain a third step: turning → listening → doing.
• mitz.vo.Ta[v] ("his commandments", H4687 + H9023) — feminine plural noun in construct with a 3ms suffix, "his" referring back to Yehovah named in the previous clause.
• me.tza.ve.[kha] ("commanding you", H6680) — piel participle in construct with 2ms suffix, presenting the commanding as a continuous, present-tense activity ("the one commanding you") rather than a completed past act.

What the text says

The verse is built as a three-link verbal chain: an initial qal imperfect (ta.Shuv, "you will turn") followed by two qal perfects joined with the narrative vav (sha.ma'.Ta, 'a.Si.ta). This grammatical pattern in Biblical Hebrew allows a single initiating imperfect to set the tense for the whole sequence, so all three actions — turning, listening, doing — are read as future events forming one continuous movement rather than three separate statements. The object of "turning" is not specified in the Hebrew text itself; it says only ta.Shuv, "you will turn," without a directional phrase.

The phrase be.Kol Yah.weh ("to the voice of Yehovah") uses the construct noun Kol ("voice of"), so obedience is framed as hearing/heeding a voice rather than an abstract command. The commandments are qualified by the relative clause 'a.Sher 'a.no.Khi me.tza.ve.Kha ha.Yom — "which I am commanding you today" — where the participle me.tza.ve.[kha] presents the commanding as an ongoing act tied to the specific day (hai.Yom, "the day," with the definite article functioning adverbially as "today").

Differences between versions

The Hebrew ta.Shuv ("you will turn") has no stated object. The LXX renders this as ἐπιστραφήσῃ ἐπὶ Κύριον ("you will turn back to the Lord"), supplying a directional object not present in the Hebrew clause itself. Similarly, where the Hebrew reads be.Kol Yah.weh ("the voice of Yehovah"), both the LXX (τῆς φωνῆς Κυρίου τοῦ θεοῦ σου, "the voice of the Lord your God") and the Vulgate (vocem Domini Dei tui, "the voice of the Lord your God") add "your God," a qualifier not present in the Hebrew text of this verse.