Deuteronomy 32:36

Summary

The verse states that Yehovah will act in judgment concerning his people and will show compassion toward his servants, once he perceives that their strength (literally "hand") has been exhausted and that none remain, whether "shut up" or "let loose." The verse pairs a legal/governing action (yadin) with an emotional or relational response (yitnecham), both triggered by an act of perception (yir'eh).

Key words

• yadin ("he will judge", H1777) — qal imperfect, expressing a future or ongoing act of judging/ruling.
• yitnecham ("he will have compassion", H5162G) — hithpael imperfect, a reflexive stem of the root nacham; the hithpael form often carries a self-directed nuance ("relent toward himself concerning") rather than a purely outward act of compassion.
• ki ("for/if/that", H3588A) — this same participle occurs three times in the verse (positions 1, 11, 13), functioning alternately as a causal, conditional, and subordinating marker, linking the clauses of perception and result.
• 'azlat ("it has been used up", H0235) — qal perfect, feminine, describing a completed depletion — paired with yad ("hand", H3027H) as an idiom for exhausted strength or power.
• 'atzur / 'azuv ("shut up" / "freed", H6113 / H5800C) — both qal passive participles, masculine singular, forming a paired expression whose precise referent (persons, or classes of persons) is not spelled out further in the Hebrew.

What the text says

The verse is built on a chain of three ki clauses. The first (ki yadin... ve'al 'avadav yitnecham) states Yehovah's two actions — judging his people and having compassion (or relenting) concerning his servants. The second ki introduces the condition triggering these actions: "when he sees" (yir'eh, qal imperfect). The third ki introduces what he sees: that "hand" (yad), a term for strength or power, has "been used up" ('azlat, qal perfect, indicating a completed state).

The closing phrase — 'efes 'atzur ve'azuv ("there is not one shut up or freed") — uses two passive participles in construct with 'efes ("there is not/none"), forming a merism whose components (something "restrained" and its opposite "released") together indicate a totality: no one is left in either state. The Hebrew does not specify who or what is "shut up" or "freed"; this is inferred differently across translations.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the final pair with παραλελυμένους καὶ ἐκλελοιπότας ("disabled/paralyzed and failing"), shifting the meaning from a merism about persons "restrained/released" to a description of physical incapacitation. The Vulgate reads clausi... defecerunt, residuique consumpti sunt ("the shut-in failed, and the remainder were consumed"), also diverging from the Hebrew's spare participial construction. Modern translations split further: BSB renders it as "slave or free," while RV1909 gives "guardado... desamparado" ("kept... forsaken"), showing that the idiom 'atzur ve'azuv is understood variously across traditions.