Deuteronomy 7:19

Summary

The verse recalls the "great trials" ( massot ) that Israel personally witnessed in Egypt — signs, wonders, the mighty hand, and the outstretched arm by which Yehovah brought Israel out — and then states that Yehovah will act in the same manner ( ken , "thus") against all the peoples Israel currently fears.

Key words

• massot ("trials", H4531B) — feminine plural noun, paired with the article and the adjective gedolot ("great", H1419A), forming the direct object recalled at the start of the sentence.
• ra'u ("they saw", H7200G) — qal perfect, 3rd person plural, completed action; its subject is 'eineikha ("your eyes", H5869A), so grammatically "your eyes" is the one that "saw," a common Hebrew idiom for direct personal witness.
• netuyah ("outstretched", H5186) — qal passive participle, feminine singular, describing ha-zeroa' ("the arm", H2220) as being in a stretched-out state, not an action in progress but a resulting condition.
• hotzi'akha ("he brought you out", H3318H) — hiphil (causative) perfect, 3rd person, with 2nd-person suffix "you" (H9031): Yehovah is the causer of the exodus, "you" being the one caused to go out.
• ya'aseh ("he will do", H6213A) — qal imperfect, 3rd person, denoting future/ongoing action, contrasted with the perfect verbs describing the past exodus events.

What the text says

The sentence is built as a long chain of nouns in construct/apposition — ha-massot ha-gedolot ("the great trials"), ha-otot ("the signs"), ha-mofetim ("the wonders"), ha-yad ha-chazakah ("the mighty hand"), ha-zeroa' ha-netuyah ("the outstretched arm") — all governed by two relative clauses introduced by 'asher (H0834A): one specifying what "your eyes saw" ( ra'u 'eineikha ), the other specifying what Yehovah "did" through the exodus ( hotzi'akha Yehovah Elohekha , "Yehovah your God brought you out"). This entire block of remembered events becomes the reference point for the main clause: ken ya'aseh Yehovah Elohekha , "thus Yehovah your God will do." The adverb ken (H3651C, "thus") functions as the hinge of the verse, converting the past historical description into the pattern for a future action against kol ha-'amim ("all the peoples," H5971A) that the addressee fears — expressed by the adjective yare' ("[is] afraid," H3373) governing the phrase mippenei-hem ("from their presence/faces," H6440L + H9028). The verb tense shift from qal perfect ( ra'u, hotzi'akha ) to qal imperfect ( ya'aseh ) marks the movement from completed past experience to anticipated future repetition of the same divine action.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew 'asher hotzi'akha ("which he brought you out," relative clause) is rendered in the LXX as ὡς ἐξήγαγέν σε ("as/how he brought you out"), shifting from a relative to a comparative/manner construction. The LXX also reads ὁ θεὸς ἡμῶν ("our God") where the Hebrew has Elohekha ("your God," H0430G + H9021) in the second occurrence of the divine title. The Vulgate renders the same relative clause with a purpose construction, "ut educeret te" ("so that he might bring you out"), differing from both the Hebrew relative and the LXX comparative.