Deuteronomy 8:13

Summary

Deuteronomy 8:13 describes the growth of possessions: herds and flocks increasing, silver and gold increasing, and "all that is yours" increasing. The verse uses a repeated verb of multiplication across three parallel clauses, describing a state of material abundance.

Key words

• yirbeyun ("they will increase", H7235A) — qal imperfect, third person masculine plural, with a paragogic nun (H9013) added for emphasis; the subject is the combined herd and flock.
• bekarcha ("your herd", H1241) — construct-form noun with pronominal suffix -cha (H9021), meaning literally "herd-of-you."
• yirbeh ("it will increase", H7235A) — same root as above, but singular, used twice: once for "silver and gold" (treated as a singular collective) and once for "all that is yours."
• kol asher-lecha ("all that [belongs] to you", H3605 + H0834A + H9005/H9031) — a relative clause built with the preposition le- ("to") plus suffix, expressing possession ("that which is to you" = "that which you have").

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built as three sequential clauses, each ending in a form of the root ravah ("to increase/multiply", H7235A): first yirbeyun for "your herd and your flock," then yirbeh for "silver and gold," and finally yirbeh again for "all that is yours." This triple repetition of the same verb root creates a rhythmic, escalating structure in Hebrew that lists categories of wealth — livestock, precious metals, and a final all-encompassing category — each affirmed as growing.

The first verb, yirbeyun, carries a paragogic nun, an archaic-style suffix added to imperfect verb forms for emphasis or solemnity, found here because the subject (herd and flock together) is grammatically plural. The two following instances of yirbeh are singular because "silver and gold" and "all that is yours" are each treated as singular collective subjects in Hebrew grammar, even though "silver and gold" names two items. The final clause, ve-khol asher-lecha yirbeh ("and all that is yours will increase"), functions as a summary statement encompassing everything previously named, using the relative construction asher-lecha ("that is to you") to express possession without a verb "to have."

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the Hebrew's three finite verbs as genitive absolute participles (πληθυνθέντων, "having been multiplied"), subordinating all three clauses grammatically to what precedes, rather than presenting them as three independent statements as in the Hebrew. The Vulgate collapses the entire structure into a single governing verb, habuerisque ("and when you have had"), followed by a list of accusative nouns ("armenta boum, et ovium greges, argenti et auri, cunctarumque rerum copiam"), eliminating the Hebrew's repeated verb of increase entirely and replacing it with a single verb of possession.