Deuteronomy 8:17

Summary

Deuteronomy 8:17 records a hypothetical inner speech: the speaker imagines someone saying that personal strength and the power of one's own hand produced their wealth. The Hebrew presents this as a direct continuation of the narrative sequence begun in the preceding verses, using a simple future/sequential verb form rather than a warning.

Key words

• 'a.mar.Ta ("you will say", H0559) — qal sequential perfect; continues the narrative chain from the prior verse, presented as a plain future action, not embedded in a negative or subordinate clause.
• ko.Ch ("strength of", H3581B) — masculine singular construct; linked to the following suffix -i ("my"), forming "my strength," fronted before the verb for emphasis.
• 'O.tzem yad ("might of hand", H6108 + H3027H) — double construct chain, "might of hand of me," reinforcing the first phrase in a parallel structure.
• 'A.sah ("has made/acquired", H6213I) — qal perfect, third person; the subject is the preceding noun phrase ("my strength and the might of my hand"), not the speaker directly.
• Cha.yil ("wealth", H2428H) — masculine singular, definite by the following article and demonstrative ha-Zeh ("this"), specifying a particular, tangible accumulation.

What the text says

The verse is built as a quoted inner statement. The two construct phrases — koChi ("my strength") and 'Otzem yadi ("the might of my hand") — are placed before the verb 'Asah ("has made"), which is grammatically singular even though it has two coordinated subjects; this is a common Hebrew pattern where a compound subject can still take a singular verb, especially when the two elements are treated as one conceptual force. The verb 'Asah takes an indirect object li ("for me") and a direct object marked by 'et (H0853, untranslated) — hachayil hazeh ("this wealth"), with the demonstrative zeh pointing to a specific, present possession. The sentence as a whole attributes the origin of the wealth to personal capability, framed as something the speaker would say internally.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew verb ve'amarta is a sequential perfect, "and you will say," continuing the narrative flow without built-in negation. The LXX renders it as μὴ εἴπῃς ("do not say" / "lest you say"), and the Vulgate as ne diceres ("you should not say"), both inserting a prohibitive sense absent from the Hebrew verb form itself. Additionally, the LXX translates chayil as τὴν δύναμιν τὴν μεγάλην ("the great power") rather than "wealth," while the Vulgate generalizes with haec mihi omnia praestiterunt ("these things have provided all this for me"), broadening the specific reference to hachayil hazeh ("this wealth") into an unspecified "all things."