Deuteronomy 4:2

Summary

The verse instructs the audience not to add to or subtract from "the word" being commanded, with the purpose of keeping the commandments of Yehovah their God. The command is framed by two parallel negated imperfect verbs (addition/subtraction) followed by an infinitive of purpose (to keep).

Key words

• to.Si.fu ("you must add", H3254H) — hiphil (causative) imperfect, 2nd person masculine plural, describing a prohibited future/ongoing action of "adding to."
• tig.re.'U ("you must diminish", H1639) — qal imperfect, 2nd person masculine plural, the parallel prohibited action of "subtracting from," structurally mirroring to.Si.fu.
• da.Var ("word", H1697G) — masculine singular noun with definite article (ha., H9009), marking a specific, already-identified "word" rather than words in general.
• sh.Mor ("keep", H8104G) — qal infinitive, expressing purpose/result ("in order to keep"), linking the prohibition on adding/subtracting to the goal of preserving the commandments.
• mitz.Vot ("[the] commandments of", H4687) — feminine plural construct noun, grammatically bound to Yehovah (H3068G) and 'e.lo.hei. ("God", H0430G), forming the phrase "commandments of Yehovah your God."

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built on two balanced negative clauses: lo' to.Si.fu 'al-ha.da.Var ("not you-must-add to the-word") and ve.lo' tig.re.'U mi.Me.nu ("and-not you-must-diminish from-it"). Both verbs are 2nd person masculine plural imperfects, giving the prohibition an ongoing, general-audience force rather than a single-instance command. The object in both clauses is ha.da.Var ("the word"), referred to again by the 3rd-person suffix -nu ("it/him") in mi.Me.nu ("from it"), showing that "adding" and "subtracting" act on the same referent.

The relative clause 'a.sher 'a.no.khi me.tza.Veh 'et.khem ("which I am commanding you") uses the participle me.tza.Veh (piel, "commanding"), which frames the action as currently in process — the speaker presents himself as the one actively giving the command at that moment, not merely reporting a past act. This same participial clause is repeated verbatim at the end of the verse (word 25), creating an inclusio around the intervening purpose clause.

The infinitive li.sh.Mor ("to keep") introduces the purpose of the prohibition: not adding or subtracting is oriented toward preserving mitz.Vot Yehovah 'e.lo.hei.khem ("the commandments of Yehovah your God"), a construct chain in which "commandments" belongs to "Yehovah," who in turn is qualified by "your God."

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the second command as an imperative, φυλάσσεσθε ("keep, guard"), rather than as an infinitive of purpose as in the Hebrew li.sh.Mor, which shifts the grammatical relationship: the Hebrew subordinates "keeping" to the prohibition as its goal, while the LXX presents "guarding the commandments" as a separate, direct command. The LXX also adds σήμερον ("today"), a temporal marker not present in the Hebrew or the Vulgate. The Vulgate's custodite similarly renders the clause as an imperative ("keep the commandments"), aligning with the LXX's structure rather than the Hebrew infinitive construction.