Deuteronomy 4:6

Summary

Deuteronomy 4:6 instructs the audience to keep and perform the statutes just mentioned, stating that this observance itself constitutes their "wisdom" and "understanding" before other nations. The verse anticipates that foreign peoples, upon hearing these statutes, will declare Israel a wise and understanding people, and describes the nation as "great" (ha-goy ha-gadol).

Key words

• she.mar.Tem ("you will take care", H8104) — qal sequential perfect, 2nd person masculine plural; opens a chain of consequence-actions ("and you shall keep... and you shall do...").
• chach.mat.Khem ("your wisdom", H2451 + H9026) — feminine singular noun in construct form with a 2nd masculine plural suffix; construct chains link it directly to the following u.vi.nat.Khem ("your understanding").
• yish.me.'Un ("they will hear", H8085) — qal imperfect, 3rd masculine plural, with paragogic nun (H9013) adding emphasis to the verb form.
• na.Von ("understanding", H0995) — niphal participle, masculine singular; grammatically passive/reflexive in form, describing a quality attributed to the people rather than an action they perform.
• ha.goy ha.ga.Dol ha.Zeh ("this great nation", H1471 + H1419 + H2088) — a noun with two attached definite adjectives/demonstratives, each carrying its own article, forming a tightly bound descriptive phrase.

What the text says

The verse begins with two sequential perfect verbs, she.mar.Tem ("you will take care", H8104) and 'a.si.Tem ("you will observe", H6213), continuing a narrative chain from the preceding verses. The clause introduced by ki ("for", H3588) explains the motive: the pronoun hi' ("that", H1931, feminine) points back to the keeping/doing just described, identified as chach.mat.Khem ("your wisdom", H2451) and vi.nat.Khem ("your understanding", H0998) — both in construct form with a possessive suffix, meaning literally "the wisdom of you (pl.)."

The phrase le-'einei ha-'amim ("to the eyes of the peoples", H5869 + H5971) uses a construct noun for "eyes" governing "the peoples," a Hebrew idiom for "in the sight of" or "as perceived by." The relative clause asher yishme'un ("who will hear", H8085) carries a paragogic nun, an emphatic verbal ending noted in the grammar without altering basic meaning. The peoples' resulting statement uses rak ("certainly", H7535), an adverb of restriction/emphasis, followed by a nominal sentence without a copula: 'am chakham ve-navon ("a people wise and understanding") — chakham ("wise", H2450) is an adjective, while navon ("understanding", H0995) is formally a niphal participle, both modifying 'am ("people", H5971). The final phrase ha-goy ha-gadol ha-zeh stacks three articulated words describing "nation," each bearing its own definite article (H9009), a common Hebrew construction for building a definite noun phrase with multiple modifiers.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders hi' ("that", H1931) with αὕτη, matching the feminine pronoun, and translates yishme'un as ἀκούσωσιν without reflecting the paragogic nun's emphasis, since Greek has no equivalent morpheme. The LXX inserts Ἴδου ("behold") before the peoples' declaration, an addition not present in the Hebrew va-'ameru ("and they will say", H0559). The Vulgate compresses she.mar.Tem ve-'a.si.Tem into "observabitis et implebitis opere," rendering 'a.si.Tem ("you will do", H6213) as "implebitis opere" ("you will fulfill in deed") rather than a direct "do" equivalent.