Deuteronomy 32:6

Summary

The verse is a double rhetorical rebuke: Israel is asked whether this is how it repays Yehovah, and then reminded — through three verbs of origin — that Yehovah is the one who fathered, made, and established the people.

Key words

• tigmelu ("do you repay", H1580) — qal imperfect, 2nd person masculine plural: an ongoing/habitual action, addressed collectively to the people.
• naval ("foolish", H5036) and chakham ("wise", H2450) — paired adjectives modifying 'am ("people", H5971A), forming a contrastive vocative: "foolish and not wise."
• qanekha ("he created/acquired you", H7069) — qal perfect, 3rd masculine singular with 2nd person suffix: a completed act, tied to 'avikha ("your father", H0001G) in the same clause.
• 'asekha ("he made you", H6213H) — qal perfect, parallel completed-action verb.
• yekhonenekha ("he established you", H3559I) — piel (intensive) form joined by the narrative vav (H9001), marking it as the culminating act in a sequence: fathered → made → established.

What the text says

The verse opens with the interrogative particle ha (H9008) attached to the preposition la ("to", H9005) before Yahweh (H3068), producing the question "Is it to Yehovah that you repay this?" The demonstrative zot ("this", H2063) points forward to the unnamed offense, left unspecified in this verse. The address that follows, 'am naval ve-lo chakham ("people foolish and not wise"), functions as a direct vocative rebuke, using two adjectives in construct-like apposition to 'am (H5971A).

The second half repeats the interrogative particle ha before lo ("not", H3808), forming the pattern "is he not...?" — a question expecting agreement. Three qal/piel perfect verbs describe completed actions performed by "he" (hu, H1931): qanekha ("created/acquired you"), 'asekha ("made you"), and yekhonenekha ("established you"). The final verb carries a narrative vav (H9001) plus piel stem, marking it as the intensified conclusion of the sequence rather than a simple parallel action. The suffix -kha ("your/you", H9031/H9021) repeats on each verb, binding the people grammatically to each stage of this origin narrative.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew qanekha (H7069) is rendered by the LXX as ἐκτήσατο ("acquired/possessed") and by the Vulgate as possedit ("possessed"), both differing from a "created" sense sometimes given in translations like BSB ("Creator"). The Vulgate additionally adds creavit ("created") as a third verb alongside possedit and fecit, expanding the Hebrew's two verbs ('asekha, yekhonenekha) into three. The LXX's opening clause, "ταῦτα Κυρίῳ ἀνταποδίδοτε οὕτω," lacks a clear interrogative marker corresponding to the Hebrew's ha (H9008), unlike the second clause, which LXX does phrase as a question.