Deuteronomy 4:4

Summary

Deuteronomy 4:4 tells the addressees (plural "you") that because they cling to Yehovah their God, they are alive — every one of them — on this day. The sentence contrasts them with those referenced earlier (via ve "and") who did not survive, framing survival as tied to attachment to Yehovah.

Key words

• de.ve.Kim ("were clinging", H1695) — masculine plural adjective/participle-like form, preceded by the article ha (H9009), which turns it into a substantivized relative clause: "the ones who cling."
• 'e.lo.hei.khem ("God", H0430G) — masculine plural noun in construct form with the suffix khem ("your," H9026), producing "God of you all," i.e., "your God."
• chai.Yim ("alive", H2416A) — masculine plural adjective functioning as the predicate of the clause, with no accompanying verb "to be."
• ku.le.khem ("all of you", H3605 + H9026) — construct noun kol ("all of") plus the second-person plural suffix, emphasizing that the state applies to every member of the group.
• hai.Yom ("this day", H9009 + H3117G) — article plus noun, literally "the day," used adverbially for "today."

What the text says

The verse opens with the conjunction ve ("and") plus the independent pronoun 'a.Tem ("you," H0859D), placing the subject in emphatic position before its description. The phrase ha-de.ve.Kim ba-Yahweh 'elohei.khem ("the ones clinging to Yehovah your God") functions as an appositional relative clause modifying "you": the definite article attached to the adjective de.ve.Kim allows it to act like "who cling," a construction common in Biblical Hebrew where article + adjective/participle substitutes for a relative pronoun plus verb.

The main predicate of the sentence, chai.Yim ("alive"), is an adjective, not a finite verb. Biblical Hebrew regularly forms nominal sentences in which a noun or pronoun stands with an adjective and no copula ("to be") is expressed; the reader supplies "are." This means the Hebrew states a condition ("you [are] alive") rather than an action ("you live"). The phrase ku.le.khem ("all of you") reinforces the totality of the group covered by this state, and hai.Yom ("this day" / "today") anchors it temporally.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the predicate with a finite verb, ζῆτε ("you live"), where the Hebrew uses the adjective chai.Yim ("alive") without a verb. The Vulgate similarly uses the verb vivitis ("you live") and adds usque in præsentem diem ("until the present day"), where the Hebrew hai.Yom simply says "this day" without the "until" (usque) sense. The LXX's προσκείμένοι ("leaning on/attached to") parallels but does not exactly match de.ve.Kim ("clinging"), both describing close attachment but with different root imagery.