Deuteronomy 5:19

Summary

Deuteronomy 5:19 is a short prohibition consisting of only two Hebrew words: a negation and a verb. It forbids the act of stealing, addressed to a single male individual.

Key words

• lo ("not", H3808) — negative particle used to negate the verb that follows.
• tignov ("you must steal", H1589) — qal imperfect, second person masculine singular, from the root meaning "to steal"; the imperfect form here expresses a durative or future prohibition, functioning as a command not to engage in the action.

What the text says

The Hebrew clause is minimal: lo ("not", H3808) precedes tignov ("you must steal", H1589), forming a direct negative command. The verb is in the qal stem, the basic and most common verbal pattern in Biblical Hebrew, indicating a straightforward, non-intensive action. Its imperfect aspect does not simply mark future time but expresses an ongoing prohibition — the negated imperfect construction (lo + imperfect) is the standard grammatical form Biblical Hebrew uses for enduring commands or prohibitions, rather than a one-time negated statement. The subject is embedded in the verb's second-person masculine singular conjugation, so no separate pronoun appears; the addressee is grammatically singular, though such legal formulations often apply collectively to a community.

There is no object stated — the verb tignov ("you must steal", H1589) is used absolutely, without specifying what is stolen. This matches the pattern of the other short prohibitions in this section of Deuteronomy 5, all built on the same negation-plus-imperfect structure.

Differences between versions

The Septuagint renders the clause as Οὐ κλέψεις — "you will not steal" — using a future indicative verb, which is the standard Greek way of representing the Hebrew negated imperfect used for commands. The Vulgate reads furtumque non facies, literally "and you shall not commit theft," introducing the noun furtum ("theft") and the verb facies ("you shall do/make"), a periphrastic construction not present in the Hebrew, which uses a single verb tignov ("you must steal", H1589) rather than a "verb + noun object" pairing. The Vulgate also adds the conjunction "-que" ("and"), making the coordination with the preceding clause more explicit than in the Hebrew text as given here. The Spanish (RV1909, SBLIBRE) and English (BSB) translations follow the Hebrew structure closely, rendering it as a simple single-verb prohibition ("No robarás" / "You shall not steal").