Deuteronomy 8:20

Summary

The verse warns that the addressees will perish "like the nations" that Yehovah is destroying before them, and gives the reason: they did not listen to the voice of Yehovah their God. The sentence pairs a comparison (nations / you) with a causal clause explaining the cause of the coming destruction.

Key words

• ma'aVid ("about to destroy", H0006) — Hiphil (causative) participle, masculine singular: describes Yehovah as the ongoing/imminent agent causing the nations' destruction, not a completed past act.
• toe.Du + paragogic nun ("you will perish", H0006 + H9013) — Qal imperfect, same root ('bd) as ma'aVid but in the simple stem: "you will [undergo] perishing," contrasted with Yehovah's causative action on the nations.
• 'Ekev ("consequence", H6118) — a noun functioning adverbially, introducing the reason clause: "as a consequence [that]..."
• tish.me.'U + paragogic nun ("you will listen", H8085H) — Qal imperfect, negated by lo' ("not", H3808), forming the specific failure being cited: not listening.
• be.Kol... 'e.lo.hei.Khem ("to the voice of... your God", H6963A + H0430G) — construct chain, "voice of Yehovah your God," the object of the failed listening.

What the text says

The verse is built on a comparison using ka ("like the", H9004) plus go.Yim ("nations", H1471A): "like the nations... so (ken, H3651C) you will perish." Both halves of the comparison use the same Hebrew root 'bd (H0006): the nations undergo it in the Hiphil participle ma'aVid ("[Yehovah is] causing to perish/destroying"), while "you" undergo it in the Qal imperfect toe.Du ("you will perish"). This root-repetition creates a wordplay not fully visible in translation: the same verb describes what happens to the nations and what will happen to the addressees, differing only in verbal stem (causative vs. simple).

The second clause opens with 'Ekev ("consequence", H6118), which here functions to introduce the stated reason for the perishing: lo' tish.me.'Un ("you will not listen") "to the voice of Yehovah your God" (be.Kol Yahweh 'elohei.khem). The construct chain Kol Yahweh 'elohei.khem stacks "voice of Yehovah, God of you(pl)" into a single reference to divine speech/command. The paragogic nun endings on both toe.Du and tish.me.'U are grammatical markers of emphasis on the plural verb forms, without changing core meaning.

Differences between versions

The LXX adds "τὰ λοιπὰ" ("the remaining/other nations"), a qualifier not present in the Hebrew go.Yim ("nations"). The LXX also renders the destruction with a present-tense verb (ἀπολλέει), aligning with the Hebrew participle's ongoing sense, while the Vulgate uses a past perfect, "delevit" ("[Yehovah] destroyed"), shifting the nations' destruction into completed past action rather than the Hebrew's participial "is destroying/about to destroy." The Vulgate further recasts the causal 'Ekev... lo' tish.me.'Un ("because you did not listen") as a conditional, "si inobedientes fueritis" ("if you will have been disobedient"), turning a stated past/ongoing failure into a hypothetical future condition — a structure followed by the BSB's "if you do not obey."