Deuteronomy 5:6

Summary

The verse presents a self-declaration of identity: the speaker names himself as Yehovah, the God of the addressee, and identifies himself further by the act of bringing that addressee out of Egypt, described as a "house of slaves."

Key words

• 'Anokhi ("I", H0595) — independent personal pronoun placed first, giving emphatic weight to the identification that follows; Hebrew does not require a separate pronoun for "I am," so its presence highlights the subject.
• Yahweh ("Yehovah", H3068G) — the divine name, functioning here in apposition to 'Anokhi, without a linking verb ("am") in the Hebrew text itself.
• 'Elohei-kha ("God of you", H0430G + suffix) — construct form meaning "your God," directly binding the divine name to the addressee (masculine singular "you").
• Hotze'ti-kha ("I brought out you", H3318H) — Hiphil (causative) perfect verb, indicating a completed causative action ("I caused [you] to go out"), with the object suffix "you" attached directly to the verb.
• Beit 'avadim ("house of slaves", H1004B + H5650) — construct chain literally "house of slaves," describing Egypt not by name alone but by its function as a place of servitude.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence has no verb "to be" in the first clause: 'Anokhi Yahweh 'Elohei-kha reads literally "I, Yehovah, God-of-you," a nominal (verbless) sentence where the pronoun, the name, and the construct phrase "your God" stand in apposition to each other. Translations supply "am" or "soy" because English and Spanish require a copula, but the Hebrew construction itself simply juxtaposes these elements.

The relative clause introduced by 'asher ("who", H0834A) attaches further description to "Yehovah your God": "who brought you out." The verb hotze'ti is Hiphil perfect, marking a completed causative event — the subject caused the object to exit — and the object pronoun "you" is suffixed directly onto the verb rather than expressed as a separate word. The phrase "from the land of Egypt" uses a construct noun 'Eretz ("land of", H0776G) governing the place-name Mitzrayim, and this is followed by a second, parallel prepositional phrase, "from a house of slaves," built on the construct pair Beit ("house of", H1004B) and 'avadim ("slaves", H5650), restating Egypt's identity in terms of bondage rather than repeating the place name.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the opening as Egō Kyrios ho theos sou, inserting the article ho before theos ("the God"), a Greek grammatical feature not present as a separate word in the Hebrew construct phrase. The LXX also uses a participle, ho exagagōn ("the one who brought out"), where the Hebrew uses a finite verb with attached relative clause via 'asher. The Vulgate follows a similarly relative-clause structure, qui eduxi ("who I led out"), matching the Hebrew's use of a finite verb closely. All versions render Beit 'avadim as "house of slavery/servitude/siervos," maintaining the construct-phrase sense of the Hebrew.