Numbers 15:39
וְהָיָה לָכֶם לְצִיצִת וּרְאִיתֶם אֹתוֹ וּזְכַרְתֶּם אֶת־כָּל־מִצְוֹת יְהוָה וַעֲשִׂיתֶם אֹתָם וְלֹֽא־תָתֻרוּ אַחֲרֵי לְבַבְכֶם וְאַחֲרֵי עֵֽינֵיכֶם אֲשֶׁר־אַתֶּם זֹנִים אַחֲרֵיהֶֽם׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
וְהָיָ֣ה לָכֶם֮ לְצִיצִת֒ וּרְאִיתֶ֣ם אֹת֗וֹ וּזְכַרְתֶּם֙ אֶת־כָּל־מִצְוֹ֣ת יְהוָ֔ה וַעֲשִׂיתֶ֖ם אֹתָ֑ם וְלֹֽא־תָתֻ֜רוּ אַחֲרֵ֤י לְבַבְכֶם֙ וְאַחֲרֵ֣י עֵֽינֵיכֶ֔ם אֲשֶׁר־אַתֶּ֥ם זֹנִ֖ים אַחֲרֵיהֶֽם׃
καὶ ἔσται ὑμῖν ἐν τοῖς κρασπέδοις, καὶ ὄψεσθε αὐτά, καὶ μνησθήσεσθε πασῶν τῶν ἐντολῶν Κυρίου καὶ ποιήσετε αὐτάς, καὶ οὐ διακατα στραφήσεσθε ὀπίσω τῶν διανοιων ὑμῶν καὶ τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν ἐν οἷς ἐκπορνεύετε ὀπίσω αὐτῶν·
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
quas cum viderint, recordentur omnium mandatorum Domini, nec sequantur cogitationes suas et oculos per res varias fornicantes,
Estas borlas les servirán para que, al verlas, se acuerden de todos los mandamientos de Yehová y los obedezcan, y no se dejen llevar por los deseos de su propio corazón y de sus ojos, que los llevan a ser infieles;
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Y serviros ha de pezuelo, para que cuando lo viereis, os acordéis de todos los mandamientos de Jehová, para ponerlos por obra; y no miréis en pos de vuestro corazón y de vuestros ojos, en pos de los cuales fornicáis:
These will serve as tassels for you to look at, so that you may remember all the commandments of the LORD, that you may obey them and not prostitute yourselves by following your own heart and your own eyes.
✦ What the text says
Summary
Numbers 15:39 explains the purpose of the tassels (tzitzit) mentioned in the preceding verse: seeing them will trigger remembering all of Yehovah's commandments and performing them. The verse then warns against "going about" after one's own heart and eyes, which is described metaphorically as an act of prostitution.
Key words
- tzi.Tzit ("tassel[s]", H6734) — feminine singular noun, the object that will function as a visual cue; introduced with the preposition le ("into/as"), marking its role as a resulting purpose.
- re.'i.Tem ("you will see", H7200G) — qal sequential perfect, second masculine plural. The sequential perfect chain (ve...ha.Yah, u...re.'i.Tem, u...ze.khar.Tem, va...'a.si.Tem) links seeing, remembering, and doing as one continuous consequence.
- ze.khar.Tem ("you will remember", H2142) — qal sequential perfect, continuing the chain begun with ha.Yah; memory is presented as the direct result of sight.
- ta.Tu.ru ("you will go about", H8446) — qal imperfect, second masculine plural, marking ongoing/future action, distinct from the preceding perfects; it shifts to a negated imperfect (lo' ta.Tu.ru) describing an action to be avoided rather than a completed sequence.
- zo.Nim ("acting as prostitutes", H2181) — qal participle, masculine plural, describing an ongoing state ("the ones doing X"); applied to the addressees' current behavior of following heart and eyes.
What the text says
The verse is built on a chain of four sequential perfect verbs (ha.Yah, re.'i.Tem, ze.khar.Tem, 'a.si.Tem), each introduced by the narrative vav (H9001). This grammatical chain presents seeing the tassel, remembering the commandments, and performing them as a single unfolding sequence rather than as separate, unrelated actions. The tassel itself is marked with the preposition le ("into/as", H9005) twice — la.khem ("for you") and le.tzi.tzit ("into a tassel") — framing it as something that becomes a specific purpose-object for the addressees.
The second half of the verse shifts grammatical mode: instead of continuing the perfect chain, it uses a negated imperfect, lo' ta.Tu.ru ("you will not go about", H8446), which expresses an ongoing or repeated action to be avoided, in contrast to the completed-sequence perfects above. The construct phrases 'a.cha.Rei le.vav.khem ("after your own heart") and ve.'a.cha.Rei 'ei.nei.khem ("and after your own eyes") use the construct form of 'a.cha.Rei ("after", H0310A) twice, paralleling heart and eyes as the two objects not to be followed. The clause ends with the participle zo.Nim ("acting as prostitutes", H2181), describing the addressees' current behavior in a durative sense — "you are [the ones who] act as prostitutes" — followed by 'a.cha.Rei.hem ("after them"), referring back to heart and eyes.
Differences between versions
The LXX renders tzi.Tzit ("tassel", H6734) as κρασπέδοις ("fringes/hems"), a more general term for the edge of a garment, where the Hebrew specifies a tassel or tuft. The LXX also translates le.vav.khem ("your heart") as τῶν διανοιων ("of the thoughts/minds"), shifting the Hebrew's bodily/seat-of-will term "heart" toward a more cognitive term. The Vulgate omits explicit reference to the tassel-object clause (ha.Yah la.khem le.tzi.tzit) as a separate statement, opening instead with "quas cum viderint" ("which when they have seen"), directly connecting to the previous verse's fringes without restating their purpose as a distinct clause.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.