Deuteronomy 31:18

Summary

Yehovah declares that on that day he will hide his face from the people because of all the evil they will have done, having turned to other gods. The verse combines an emphatic construction on the verb "to hide" with a causal clause explaining the reason for that action.

Key words

• has.Ter ("certainly ", H5641) — hiphil absolute infinitive placed before the finite verb, intensifying the action it accompanies.
• 'as.Tir ("I will hide", H5641) — hiphil imperfect, first person, expressing future/ongoing action; paired with the infinitive it forms the "certainly hide" construction.
• pa.Na ("face", H6440H) — masculine plural noun in construct state, "face of," followed by the suffix -i ("my"), giving "my face."
• ra.'Ah ("evil", H7451I) — feminine singular noun, definite by the preceding article ha (H9009), the object of the preposition 'al ("on/because of", H5921A).
• fa.Nah ("it has turned", H6437G) — qal perfect, third person masculine singular, introduced by ki ("for/that", H3588A), giving the reason for the hiding of the face.

What the text says

The clause opens with ve ("and", H9002) plus the independent pronoun 'a.no.Khi ("I", H0595), which is not grammatically required with a finite verb but adds emphasis to the subject. This emphasis is reinforced by the infinitive absolute has.Ter placed directly before the finite verb 'as.Tir, both from the root H5641 ("to hide"). This doubling — infinitive plus finite verb of the same root — is a construction that intensifies or confirms the certainty of the action, here rendered by translations as "I will surely hide" or "I will certainly hide."

The object of the hiding is pa.Na-i ("my face"), a construct noun with pronominal suffix. The time is marked by ba-yYom ha-Hu' ("on that day"), using the preposition ba (H9003) with the definite noun yom (H3117G) and demonstrative hu' (H1931).

The second half of the verse gives the cause. The preposition 'al ("on/because of", H5921A) governs kol ha-ra'ah ("all the evil"), a construct chain where kol (H3605) is followed by the definite noun ra'ah (H7451I). The relative 'a.Sher ("which", H0834A) introduces a qal perfect verb 'a.Sah ("it has done", H6213A), describing completed action. The subordinating particle ki (H3588A, "for/that") then introduces a second qal perfect, fa.Nah ("it has turned", H6437G), followed by 'el 'Elohim 'acherim ("to other gods"), specifying the nature of the evil done.

Differences between versions

The LXX (Swete) text includes an additional clause not present in the Hebrew as segmented here — "οὐκ ἔστιν Κύριος ὁ θεός μου ἐν ἐμοί, εὕροσάν με τὰ κακὰ ταῦτα" ("the Lord my God is not among me, these evils have found me") — before rendering the "hiding of face" statement with ἀποστροφῇ ἀποστρέψω τὸ πρόσωπόν μου ("with a turning away I will turn away my face"), a construction paralleling the Hebrew infinitive-plus-finite-verb intensification but using the verb "to turn away" rather than "to hide." The Vulgate (abscondam, et celabo faciem meam, "I will hide, and I will conceal my face") represents the emphatic Hebrew construction with two distinct verbs rather than one repeated root.