Deuteronomy 9:25

Summary

The verse recounts that the speaker prostrated himself before Yehovah for forty days and forty nights, explaining that this act of prostration occurred because Yehovah had said he would destroy the people. The verse uses two forms of the same verb to frame the duration of the act and its cause.

Key words

• 'et.na.Pal ("I prostrated myself", H5307G) — hithpael narrative form, marking the main sequential action of the story ("and I fell down/prostrated myself").
• hit.na.Pal.ti ("I prostrated myself", H5307G) — same root in hithpael perfect, but here describing the completed state of the action already introduced, used in a relative clause ("which I had prostrated").
• 'a.Sher ("which", H0834A) — relative particle connecting the forty days/nights to the verb of prostration, specifying the duration referred to.
• ki- ("for", H3588A) — subordinating particle introducing the reason clause, linking the prostration to Yehovah's prior statement.
• hash.Mid ("destroy", H8045) — hiphil infinitive (causative), expressing the intended action Yehovah had declared ("to destroy").

What the text says

The verse opens with the narrative vav construction va. + 'et.na.Pal, continuing the sequence of the account and introducing the main verb: the speaker "fell down" or "prostrated himself" before Yah.weh ("Yehovah", H3068G). The object phrase built from 'et (untranslated object marker) plus 'ar.ba.'Im ("forty", H0705) and Yom ("day", H3117G) specifies the duration, repeated with ve. ("and") for the parallel phrase concerning Lay.lah ("night", H3915). This numeral phrase is then modified by the relative clause introduced by 'a.Sher ("which", H0834A), which uses the same verbal root again — this time as hit.na.Pal.ti, a perfect hithpael form in the first person, denoting the completed nature of the extended prostration already mentioned.

The second half of the verse shifts to explanation via ki- ("for", H3588A), introducing a causal or subordinate clause. This clause states that Yah.weh ("Yehovah", H3068G) "had said" ('a.Mar, qal perfect) with intent expressed through the hiphil infinitive hash.Mid ("destroy", H8045), governing the object suffix Khem ("you", H9036, masculine plural). The grammatical structure ties the extended physical action of prostration directly to a stated prior declaration by Yehovah, using verb repetition (the same root in two conjugated forms) to emphasize the continuity and completeness of the act described.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the Hebrew 'et.na.Pal / hit.na.Pal.ti ("prostrated myself") with ἐδεήθην ("I begged/pleaded"), shifting the semantic emphasis from physical prostration to verbal supplication, and repeats this verb where the Hebrew repeats its own root. The Vulgate renders the first verb as jacui ("I lay down") and adds suppliciter deprecabar ("I begged with entreaty") for the relative clause, combining physical posture with verbal pleading, which is not explicit in the Hebrew wording of either verb form.