Deuteronomy 5:32
וּשְׁמַרְתֶּם לַעֲשׂוֹת כַּאֲשֶׁר צִוָּה יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם אֶתְכֶם לֹא תָסֻרוּ יָמִין וּשְׂמֹֽאל׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
וּשְׁמַרְתֶּ֣ם לַעֲשׂ֔וֹת כַּאֲשֶׁ֥ר צִוָּ֛ה יְהוָ֥ה אֱלֹהֵיכֶ֖ם אֶתְכֶ֑ם לֹ֥א תָסֻ֖רוּ יָמִ֥ין וּשְׂמֹֽאל׃
καὶ φυλάξεσθε ποιεῖν ὃν τρόπον ἐνετείλατό σοι κύριος ὁ θεός σου· οὐκ ἐκκλινεῖτε εἰς δεξιὰ οὐδὲ εἰς ἀριστερά,
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
Custodite igitur et facite quæ præcepit Dominus Deus vobis: non declinabitis neque ad dexteram, neque ad sinistram:
Por lo tanto, deberás hacer lo que el Señor, tu Dios, te ha ordenado. No te desviarás ni a la derecha ni a la izquierda.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Mirad, pues, que hagáis como Jehová vuestro Dios os ha mandado: no os apartéis á diestra ni á siniestra;
So be careful to do as the LORD your God has commanded you; you are not to turn aside to the right or to the left.
✦ What the text says
Summary
The verse instructs the addressees (plural "you") to carefully observe and do what Yehovah their God has commanded them, without deviating either to the right or to the left. It functions as a closing exhortation following the giving of commandments.
Key words
- she.mar.Tem ("you will take care", H8104J) — qal sequential perfect, second person masculine plural; continues a narrative sequence, indicating an ongoing obligation rather than a single completed act.
- tzi.Vah ("he has commanded", H6680) — piel perfect, third person masculine singular; the piel stem intensifies the verb, conveying authoritative command rather than mere suggestion.
- Yah.weh ("Yehovah", H3068G) — the divine name, here in construct relationship with 'e.lo.hei. ("God", H0430G), forming "Yehovah your God."
- ta.Su.ru ("you must turn aside", H5493I) — qal imperfect, second person masculine plural; the imperfect aspect marks this as an ongoing or future prohibition, not a one-time event.
- ya.Min ("right [hand]", H3225G) and se.Mol ("left [hand]", H8040G) — paired nouns, feminine and masculine respectively, forming a merism expressing totality of direction ("neither right nor left").
What the text says
The verse opens with a narrative vav (u., H9001) attached to she.mar.Tem, linking this instruction to what precedes it in the text's sequence. The construction she.mar.Tem la.'a.Sot — "you will take care to do" — pairs a finite verb with an infinitive ('a.Sot, H6213A) introduced by the preposition la. (H9005), a common Hebrew pattern where the infinitive specifies the content or purpose of the main verb's action: not merely "observe" in the abstract, but observe in order to do.
The clause ka.'a.Sher tzi.Vah Yah.weh 'e.lo.hei.Khem 'et.Khem ("as Yehovah your God has commanded you") uses the relative particle 'a.Sher (H0834D) to introduce the standard or manner of compliance — the doing must match what was commanded. The direct object marker 'et. (H0853) with suffix Khem (H9036) marks "you" as the object of the commanding, distinct from the earlier Khem (H9026) suffix marking possession in "your God."
The final clause negates future deviation with lo' (H3808) plus the imperfect ta.Su.ru, and the merism ya.Min... se.Mol — right and left — expresses a totality of directions rather than referring to two specific literal sides, a construction that spans the entire range between them.
Differences between versions
The LXX renders she.mar.Tem la.'a.Sot with two infinitives, φυλάξεσθε ποιεῖν ("you will guard to do"), matching the Hebrew's verb-plus-infinitive structure closely. The Vulgate splits this into two imperative-like forms, "Custodite... et facite" ("Keep... and do"), presenting them as parallel commands rather than one verb governing an infinitive, a structural divergence from the Hebrew's single sequential verb with dependent infinitive.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.