Deuteronomy 4:1

Summary

Moses addresses Israel with a call to attention, introducing the chukim ("statutes") and mishpatim ("judgments") he is teaching them. The purpose clause ties obedience to life, entry into, and possession of the land that Yehovah, the God of their ancestors, is giving them.

Key words

• shema ("listen", H8085G) — qal imperative, a direct command demanding immediate attention, not mere hearing.
• chukkim ("statutes", H2706G) — masculine plural noun, paired with mishpatim, forming a two-part designation of the legal material about to be taught.
• melammed ("[am] about to teach", H3925G) — piel participle, expressing an ongoing, intensive act of instruction by Moses in the present.
• lema'an ("so that", H4616) — subordinating particle introducing the purpose/result clause governing the following verbs.
• noten ("[is] about to give", H5414G) — qal participle describing Yehovah's giving of the land as a continuing, present-tense action rather than a completed past event.

What the text says

The verse opens with ve'attah ("and now", H6258) marking a rhetorical shift from the preceding narrative to direct exhortation. The vocative Yisra'el ("O Israel", H3478) is followed immediately by the imperative shema ("listen", H8085G), establishing the command structure. The object of listening is introduced twice with the preposition 'el ("to", H0413) — once for ha-chukkim ("the statutes", H2706G) and once for ha-mishpatim ("the judgments", H4941G) — a repeated syntactic pattern that gives each noun its own prepositional link rather than treating them as a single compound object.

The relative clause 'asher 'anokhi melammed 'etkhem la'asot ("which I am teaching you to do") uses the piel participle melammed (H3925G) to frame Moses' teaching as a continuous act, followed by the infinitive la'asot ("to do/observe", H6213A), which specifies the goal of that teaching as practice, not merely knowledge.

The purpose clause beginning with lema'an ("so that", H4616) governs a chain of verbs: the jussive-form tichyu ("you may live", H2421), then two sequential perfects joined by the narrative vav — va'tem ("you will go", H0935G) and virishtem ("you will take possession", H3423H). This chain presents life, entry, and possession as a linked sequence of consequences flowing from obedience. The final clause identifies the land through a relative clause headed by 'asher ("which", H0834A), with noten (H5414G), a qal participle, portraying Yehovah's gift of the land as an act presently in progress.

Differences between versions

The LXX adds σήμερον ("today") after "teaching you," an element not present in the Hebrew text given here. The LXX also adds καὶ πολυπλασιασθῆτε ("and be multiplied") between "live" and "inherit," a phrase without a corresponding Hebrew word in this passage. The Vulgate renders the participle noten ("is giving", H5414G) as daturus est ("is about to give"), a future-oriented construction, where the Hebrew participle more naturally conveys an action presently underway.