Deuteronomy 5:29

Summary

Deuteronomy 5:29 records a wish expressed about the people: that their heart would be disposed to fear Yehovah and keep his commandments continually, so that things would go well for them and their descendants forever. The verse is framed as a rhetorical exclamation using an idiomatic Hebrew construction of unfulfilled wish.

Key words

• mi-yiTten ("who will give", H4310 + H5414Q) — an idiomatic Hebrew phrase literally "who will give," used to express a wish or longing ("would that...").
• levaVam ("their heart", H3824) — construct noun with pronominal suffix "their," the organ described as the locus of disposition toward obedience.
• yir'Ah ("to fear", H3372H) — infinitive form expressing purpose or result, "to fear me," dependent on the preceding verbs.
• shMor ("to keep", H8104G) — infinitive paired with yir'Ah, "and to keep," both infinitives depending on the wish expressed by mi-yiTten.
• le'oLam ("forever", H5769G) — noun marking the temporal scope of the wished-for benefit, "for their children forever."

What the text says

The sentence opens with the idiom mi-yiTten (H4310 + H5414Q), literally "who will give," a fixed Hebrew construction that functions as an exclamation of wish or longing, roughly "would that" or "if only." This is followed by ve-haYah (H1961), a sequential perfect that continues the wish clause, introducing what is wished for: that "this heart" (levaVam zeh, H3824 + H2088) would belong to them (laHem, H9038) — that is, that they would possess such a disposition.

The purpose of having this heart is expressed through two parallel infinitives, le-yir'Ah ("to fear," H3372H) and ve-li-shMor ("and to keep," H8104G), both governed by the preposition le- ("to/for"). These infinitives express what the wished-for heart would produce: fearing "me" (the divine speaker, marked by the object marker 'oTi, H0853 + H9030) and keeping "all my commandments" (kol-mitzvoTai, H3605 + H4687 + H9020) "all the days" (kol-haYamim, H3605 + H3117K).

The final clause is introduced by le-Ma'an (H4616), a subordinating particle expressing purpose ("so that"), followed by the jussive verb yiTav ("it may go well," H3190), expressing the desired outcome — that things go well for them (laHem) and for "their sons" (liv-neiHem, H1121G + H9028) "forever" (le-'oLam, H5769G).

Differences between versions

The LXX renders mi-yiTten with tís dṓsei ("who will give"), closely matching the Hebrew idiom, while the Vulgate uses quis det ("who might give"), also preserving the wish-construction. Both versions render the two Hebrew infinitives (le-yir'Ah, ve-li-shMor) as subordinate purpose clauses — the LXX with hōste + infinitive, the Vulgate with ut + subjunctive — producing a smoother "so that they fear/keep" reading, whereas the Hebrew infinitives are more directly tied to the noun "heart" as its intended function.