Deuteronomy 4:35

Summary

The verse states that the addressee (Israel, addressed in the singular) was made to see something so that he would know that Yehovah is God, and that there is no other besides him. The sentence combines a causative passive verb of perception with a purpose clause naming the content of that knowledge.

Key words

• ha.re.'E.ta ("you were shown", H7200G) — hophal perfect: a causative-passive form, meaning the subject did not act but was caused to see; "perfect" marks the action as completed.
• Da.'at ("to know", H3045) — qal infinitive introduced by the preposition la ("to/for"), forming a purpose clause: "in order to know."
• Yah.weh ("Yehovah", H3068G) — the divine name, subject of the subordinate clause introduced by ki ("that", H3588A).
• 'E.lo.Him ("God", H0430G) — grammatically plural noun used with a singular predicate sense, preceded by the definite article ha ("the", H9009), giving "the God."
• mi.le.vad.o ("besides him", H0905J + H9033) — a construct noun levad ("alone/apart") with preposition mi ("from") and the pronominal suffix "him," forming the idiom "apart from him."

What the text says

The verse opens with the independent pronoun 'a.Tah ("you", H0859A) placed before the verb ha.re.'E.ta, which is grammatically unnecessary since the verb already encodes the subject; this fronting places emphasis on "you" as the one who received the showing. The verb form itself is hophal, a passive-causative stem: the subject underwent an action caused by another agent, rather than performing the seeing himself. This is followed by the infinitive construction la.Da.'at, "in order to know," which states the purpose of the showing.

The content of what is to be known is introduced by ki ("that/if", H3588A) and consists of a nominal clause: Yah.weh hu' ha.'E.lo.Him — "Yehovah, he, the God." Here hu' ("he", H1931) functions as a copula linking the subject Yah.weh to the predicate ha.'E.lo.Him, which carries the definite article, marking it as "the God" rather than a generic "a god."

The closing clause, 'ein od mi.le.vad.o, is built from 'ein ("there is not", H0369), the noun od ("yet/more", H5750), and the prepositional-construct phrase mi.le.vad.o ("from apart-of-him"). Together these produce the idiomatic sense "there is none besides him," expressing exclusivity through a combination of negation and a spatial/separative preposition rather than a single word for "only."

Differences between versions

The LXX reads κύριος ὁ θεός σου ("the Lord your God"), adding a second-person possessive ("your") not present in the Hebrew, which has only Yah.weh without a suffix. The LXX also renders the predicate as οὗτος θεός ἐστιν ("this one is God") rather than reproducing the Hebrew's hu' ha.'Elohim ("he [is] the God") with the article. The Vulgate's "Dominus ipse est Deus" stays close to the Hebrew structure, using ipse ("he himself") for hu'.