Deuteronomy 31:13

וּבְנֵיהֶם אֲשֶׁר לֹֽא־יָדְעוּ יִשְׁמְעוּ וְלָמְדוּ לְיִרְאָה אֶת־יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם כָּל־הַיָּמִים אֲשֶׁר אַתֶּם חַיִּים עַל־הָאֲדָמָה אֲשֶׁר אַתֶּם עֹבְרִים אֶת־הַיַּרְדֵּן שָׁמָּה לְרִשְׁתָּֽהּ׃ פ

✦ Hebrew interlinear

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✦ The same verse in five languages

Hebrew

וּבְנֵיהֶ֞ם אֲשֶׁ֣ר לֹֽא־יָדְע֗וּ יִשְׁמְעוּ֙ וְלָ֣מְד֔וּ לְיִרְאָ֖ה אֶת־יְהוָ֣ה אֱלֹהֵיכֶ֑ם כָּל־הַיָּמִ֗ים אֲשֶׁ֨ר אַתֶּ֤ם חַיִּים֙ עַל־הָ֣אֲדָמָ֔ה אֲשֶׁ֨ר אַתֶּ֜ם עֹבְרִ֧ים אֶת־הַיַּרְדֵּ֛ן שָׁ֖מָּה לְרִשְׁתָּֽהּ׃ פ

Greek (Septuagint)

καὶ οἱ υἱοὶ αὐτῶν οἳ οὐκ οἴδασιν ἀκούσονται, καὶ μαθήσονται φοβεῖσθαι κύριον τὸν θεόν σου πάσας τὰς ἡμέρας ὅσας αὐτοὶ ζῶσιν ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς εἰς ἢν ὑμεῖς διαβαίνετε τὸν Ἰορδάνην ἐκεῖ κληρονομεῖν αὐτήν.

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

Latin (Vulgate)

Filii quoque eorum qui nunc ignorant, ut audire possint, et timeant Dominum Deum suum cunctis diebus quibus versantur in terra, ad quam vos, Jordane transmisso, pergitis obtinendam.

Spanish

y para que sus hijos, que no han sabido, oigan y aprendan a temer a Yehová su Dios, mientras vivan en la tierra adonde pasan el Jordán para poseerla.”

Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)

Y los hijos de ellos que no supieron oigan, y aprendan á temer á Jehová vuestro Dios todos los días que viviereis sobre la tierra, para ir á la cual pasáis el Jordán para poseerla.

English

Then their children who do not know the law will listen and learn to fear the LORD your God, as long as you live in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess.” God Commissions Joshua

✦ What the text says

Summary

The verse describes children who have not yet known (the law/covenant) hearing it read and learning to fear Yehovah, throughout the days the people live on the land they are crossing the Jordan to possess. It continues the instruction from the preceding verses about periodic public reading of the law.

Key words

ya.de.'U ("they have known", H3045) — qal perfect, marking a completed state: the children have not yet had this knowledge up to now.
yish.me.'U ("they will hear", H8085G) — qal imperfect, expressing future/ongoing action: the hearing is what will happen going forward.
La.me.Du ("they will learn", H3925H) — qal sequential perfect (vav-consecutive), continuing the chain of future action begun by yish.me.'U; grammatically it "inherits" the future sense of the imperfect that precedes it.
yir.'Ah ("fear", H3372H) — qal infinitive with prefixed le- ("to"), giving purpose: "to fear," the goal of learning.
rish.Ta ("take possession of", H3423H) — qal infinitive with le- and object suffix -h ("it"), again purpose: "to possess it," referring back to 'a.da.Mah ("land", H0127G).

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence chains verbs through a perfect–imperfect–sequential-perfect sequence: ya.de.'U ("they have [not] known") sets the background condition in the perfect, then yish.me.'U ("they will hear") shifts to imperfect for the main future action, and ve.La.me.Du ("and they will learn") uses the sequential perfect (vav + perfect) to continue that same future sense — a common Biblical Hebrew mechanism where a perfect verb attached to a preceding imperfect by vav takes on future meaning rather than past. The two infinitives with le-, yir.'Ah ("to fear") and rish.Ta ("to possess it"), both express purpose or result rather than separate main actions: hearing and learning lead "to fear," and living on the land leads "to possess it."

The phrase kol-ha.Yamim 'a.Sher 'a.Tem chai.Yim ("all the days that you [are] alive") uses the construct noun kol ("all of", H3605) governing ha.Yamim ("the days", H3117K), followed by a relative clause with the adjective chai.Yim ("alive", H2416A) rather than a finite verb, describing the duration as the extent of the addressees' lifetime on the land.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders 'e.lo.hei.Khem ("your God", plural "you") as τὸν θεόν σου ("your God," singular σου) — a shift from plural to singular pronoun not present in the Hebrew suffix -Khem (H9026, plural). The Vulgate's timeant ("let them fear") uses a subjunctive verb form differing from the Hebrew infinitive construction le-yir.'Ah ("to fear"), rendering it as a purpose clause with a finite verb rather than an infinitive.

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