Deuteronomy 4:36

Summary

Deuteronomy 4:36 describes two paired actions of Yehovah toward the addressee: making him hear a voice from the heavens, and showing him a great fire on the earth, out of which words were heard. The verse recounts a sensory experience involving sound from above and fire on earth.

Key words

• hish.mi.'a ("he caused to hear", H8085G) — hiphil perfect, causative form of the verb "to hear": the subject makes someone else hear something, here "his voice."
• ya.se.Re ("discipline", H3256) — piel infinitive, expressing purpose or result ("in order to discipline you"), attached to the preceding clause about hearing the voice.
• her.'a ("he showed", H7200G) — hiphil perfect, causative of "to see": the subject causes the addressee to see the fire.
• ko.L...o ("voice...his", H6963A + H9023) — construct noun with pronominal suffix, "his voice," marked as direct object by 'et (H0853).
• sha.Ma'.ta ("you heard", H8085G) — qal perfect, simple (non-causative) form, contrasting with the earlier hiphil forms: here the addressee is the direct subject of hearing, not caused to hear by another explicit construction, though the words come "from the midst of the fire."

What the text says

The verse is built on two parallel hiphil (causative) clauses, each governing an 'et-marked direct object: hish.mi.'a...'et-ko.lo ("he caused you to hear...his voice") and her.'a...'et-'i.sho ha.ge.do.lah ("he showed you...his fire, the great one"). Both causative verbs take the second-person pronominal suffix -kha ("you," H9031) attached directly to the verb, a common feature of Biblical Hebrew where pronominal objects merge with the verb form rather than appearing as separate words. The first clause is followed by the piel infinitive le.ya.se.Re.kha ("to discipline you"), indicating the purpose of the auditory event.

The spatial structure is explicit: min-ha.sha.Ma.yim ("from the heavens," H4480A + H8064) governs the hearing of the voice, while 'al-ha.'A.retz ("on the earth," H5921A + H0776G) governs the seeing of the fire. The final clause shifts to a qal (non-causative) perfect, sha.Ma'.ta ("you heard"), with the addressee as grammatical subject, followed by mi.tokh ha.'esh ("from the midst of the fire," H8432 + H0784), locating the source of "his words" (de.va.Ra.v, H1697G construct + suffix) within the fire itself rather than from the heavens.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the causative structure differently, using ἀκουστὴ ἐγένετο ἡ φωνὴ ("the voice became audible") rather than a direct causative verb form matching the Hebrew hiphil hish.mi.'a. The Vulgate's fecit audire ("he made [you] hear") more closely mirrors the Hebrew causative construction. For ya.se.Re ("discipline," H3256), the LXX has παιδεῦσαί ("to educate/train") and the Vulgate ut doceret ("that he might teach"), both offering renderings distinct from "discipline."