Deuteronomy 5:10

Summary

Deuteronomy 5:10 describes Yehovah as the one who extends chesed ("covenant loyalty") to thousands, specifically to those who love him and keep his commandments. The verse uses two parallel participial constructions describing the recipients of this loyalty.

Key words

• 'oseh ("who does", H6213A) — qal participle, masculine singular, describing an ongoing characteristic action ("the one doing/showing") rather than a single past event.
• chesed ("covenant loyalty", H2617A) — masculine singular noun, the direct object of 'oseh; denotes steadfast loyalty within a relationship rather than a generic sentiment.
• 'alafim ("thousands", H0505G) — plural noun following the preposition la- ("to"), marking the scope or recipients of the chesed.
• 'ohavai ("those who love me", H0157G) — qal participle, masculine plural, construct form, with the pronominal suffix -i (H9030) functioning as the grammatical object ("who love me"), not as possession.
• mitzvotai ("my commandments", H4687 + H9020) — feminine plural noun in construct with a different type of pronominal suffix (H9020), here expressing possession ("my commandments"), contrasting grammatically with the object-suffix on 'ohavai.

What the text says

The verse continues a sentence begun earlier (marked by the initial ve-, "and") describing an attribute of Yehovah. The core clause is participle + object: 'oseh chesed ("[who] does covenant loyalty"), followed by la'alafim ("to thousands"), indicating the extent of this loyalty. The text then specifies who these "thousands" are through two parallel construct phrases joined by ve- ("and"): le'ohavai ("to those who love me") and ulshomrei mitzvotai ("and to those who keep my commandments"). Both phrases use le- ("to/of") plus a plural participle in construct form, creating grammatical parallelism between "loving" and "keeping."

A notable grammatical distinction lies in the two pronominal suffixes attached to -ai endings: on 'ohavai the suffix (H9030) is the object of the verb ("love me"), while on mitzvotai the suffix (H9020) is possessive ("my commandments"). Though both appear as -ai in transliteration, the underlying Hebrew grammar assigns them different syntactic roles — one is who is loved, the other is what is possessed.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew text says la'alafim ("to thousands") without further qualification. The LXX renders this as eis chiliadas ("to thousands"), matching the Hebrew closely. The Vulgate expands this to "in multa millia" ("into many thousands"), adding the qualifier "multa" ("many") not present in the Hebrew or the LXX. The BSB translation further interprets this as "a thousand generations," a phrase not found explicitly in the Hebrew, LXX, or Vulgate texts provided.