Deuteronomy 7:24

Summary

Deuteronomy 7:24 describes Yehovah handing over the kings of the nations into the hand of the addressee (Israel), who will destroy their name from under the heavens, so that no one will be able to stand before him until he has destroyed them.

Key words

• na.Tan ("he will give", H5414G) — qal sequential perfect, continuing the narrative sequence begun in the preceding verses; here it means "he will hand over" (the kings).
• ha.'a.vad.Ta ("you will destroy", H0006) — hiphil (causative) sequential perfect, second person masculine singular: "you will cause to perish", continuing the same narrative chain as na.Tan.
• yit.ya.Tzev ("he will stand", H3320) — hithpael (reflexive/self-directed) imperfect, third person masculine singular, expressing ongoing or future capacity: "no one will set himself up" or "present himself."
• hish.mid.kha ("your destroying", H8045 + H9041) — hiphil infinitive with pronominal suffix "you," forming a temporal clause with the preposition 'ad ("until", H5704): "until your destroying them."
• sha.Ma.yim ("heavens", H8064) — masculine plural noun, governed by the construct Ta.chat ("under", H8478G), forming the phrase "from under the heavens."

What the text says

The verse is built as a chain of sequential perfects (na.Tan, ha.'a.vad.Ta) that continue a narrative sequence: first the kings are given into the hand (ya.De.kha, "your hand", H3027H) of the addressee, then the addressee causes their she.Ma ("name", H8034) to perish from under the heavens. The construct chain mal.khei.Hem ("kings of them", H4428G + H9028) and she.Ma.m ("name of them", H8034 + H9028) both use possessive suffixes referring to the defeated nations, tying the destruction of kingship to the erasure of their name.

The second half of the verse shifts to a negated imperfect, lo'-yit.ya.Tzev ("he will not stand", H3808 + H3320), using the hithpael stem, which conveys a reflexive sense — no one will "set himself up" or "present himself" — rather than a simple passive "resist." This is followed by the construct phrase be.fa.Nei.kha ("in your face", H6440G + H9021), literally "before your face," idiomatically "before you." The clause closes with 'ad hish.mid.kha 'o.Tam ("until your destroying them", H5704 + H8045 + H0853 + H9038), an infinitive construct with a subject suffix expressing the temporal limit of the preceding statement — the impossibility of standing lasts until the destruction is complete.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders mi.Tachat ha.sha.Ma.yim ("from under the heavens") as ἐκ τοῦ τόπου ἐκείνων ("from their place"), differing from both the Hebrew "heavens" and the Vulgate's sub cælo ("under heaven"), which follows the Hebrew phrase more closely. The LXX also renders lo'-yit.ya.Tzev 'ish as οὐκ ἀντιστήσεται οὐδεὶς ("no one will resist/withstand"), while the Hebrew hithpael verb yit.ya.Tzev more literally conveys "will not present/set himself."