Deuteronomy4:1–14

Where the English smooths the original

• וְעַתָּ֣ה The BSB's “Hear now” reverses the Hebrew order. The text opens wə·‘at·tāh (H6258), “And now” — a hinge-word that pivots from the recited history of chapters 1–3 to the demand of chapter 4. It is conclusion-drawing, not a softening particle: because all that has happened, therefore hear.
• שְׁמַ֤ע šə·ma‘ (H8085) is a singular imperative — “Hear thou” — addressed to the nation as one person, even as the verbs that follow (“you may live,” plural) shift to the many. The English “Hear, O Israel” hides the number; the Hebrew root carries obey inside hear.
• לַעֲשׂ֑וֹת la·‘ă·śō·wṯ (H6213), an infinitive of ‘âśâh, is literally “to do,” not the BSB's “to follow.” The whole point of the verse is performance, not adherence — the teaching aims at the deed.
• וִֽירִשְׁתֶּ֣ם wî·riš·tem (H3423, yârash) is sharper than “take possession.” The root means to occupy by dispossessing the prior tenants — to inherit by driving out. Possession here is conquest received as gift.

Where the English smooths the original

• הַדָּבָר֙ Singular — had·dā·ḇār (H1697), “the word,” not “the words.” Ellicott presses this: “The word is the substance of the Law. The words in which it is expressed may be more or less.” The prohibition guards the thing, not merely the wording.
• תֹסִ֗פוּ ṯō·si·p̄ū (H3254) is a Hiphil — causative, “you shall not cause-to-be-added.” The verb pairs precisely with its opposite below; the Hebrew frames a sealed measure, neither augmented nor scraped down.
• תִגְרְע֖וּ ṯiḡ·rə·‘ū (H1639, gâra‘) literally means “to scrape off,” as one shaves a beard or planes wood. The BSB's “subtract” loses the physical image of whittling away at a fixed thing.

Where the English smooths the original

• הָֽרֹאֹ֔ת hā·rō·’ōṯ (H7200) is a participle — literally “your eyes are the seeing ones.” Keil renders it “Your eyes the seeing.” The construction makes the hearers living witnesses, not past spectators; the seeing abides on them.
• הָלַךְ֙ hā·laḵ (H1980) — “walked,” not the BSB's “followed.” The Pulpit Commentary notes walked after is “a common Biblical expression for religious adherence and service.” Idolatry is figured as a way one walks.
• הִשְׁמִיד֛וֹ hiš·mî·ḏōw (H8045, šâmad) is stronger than “destroyed from among you.” The root means to desolate, to exterminate; the suffix is singular — destroyed him — judgment falling man by man on the guilty, while the faithful (v. 4) were spared.

Where the English smooths the original

• הַדְּבֵקִ֔ים had·də·ḇê·qîm (H1695, dâbêq) is the participle “the ones cleaving / adhering.” Keil: “to cleave to any one, to hold fast to him.” It is the same verb used for a man cleaving to his wife (Gen 2:24) — the BSB's “held fast” is right but loses that intimacy and continuity.
• חַיִּ֥ים ḥay·yîm (H2416) is a bare plural noun — “lives / living ones,” with no verb “to be” in the Hebrew. The verse simply juxtaposes “but you, the cleaving ones — alive, all of you, today.” Survival is named, not asserted.
• כֻּלְּכֶ֖ם kul·lə·ḵem (H3605), “all of you,” stands emphatically at the end. Gill marvels that “in such a vast number of people not one should die.” The totality is the point: the faithful, to a man, live.

Where the English smooths the original

• רְאֵ֣ה׀ rə·’êh (H7200), “See!” — the very verb used of the eyes in vv. 3, 9. The BSB keeps it, but note Moses now turns the sense of sight inward: not “see what God did,” but “see what I have taught.” Sight is made attentive to the Word.
• לִמַּ֣דְתִּי lim·maḏ·tî (H3925) is a Piel perfect — “I have taught.” Cambridge flags the tension with v. 1's participle (“am teaching”); the past tense represents the imminent legislation as already accomplished, a prophetic-perfect way of speaking.
• בְּקֶ֣רֶב bə·qe·reḇ (H7130) means “in the inward part / midst” of the land, the same word rendered “from among you” (miqqirbeḵā) in v. 3. The English flattens both to “in the land”; the Hebrew has the law to be done in the land's very interior.

Where the English smooths the original

• וַעֲשִׂיתֶם֒ The Hebrew opens with two verbs — wa·‘ă·śî·ṯem (H6213, do) and ū·šə·mar·tem (H8104, keep) — literally “you shall do and you shall keep.” The BSB's “Observe them carefully” compresses the pair; Cambridge notes the deuteronomic emphasis falls on the doing, against being “content to remember the commandments.”
• חָכְמַתְכֶם֙ ḥā·ḵə·maṯ·ḵem (H2451), “your wisdom” — Cambridge: “Not your mere possession of the law, but this your doing of it, shall be your intellectual strength.” The wisdom is enacted, not stored.
• רַ֚ק raq (H7535) is rendered “Surely.” Keil glosses it sharply: “only, no other than” — the nations' verdict is exclusive and emphatic: none but a wise people could be this.

Where the English smooths the original

• אֱלֹהִ֖ים ’ĕ·lō·hîm (H430) and its adjective qə·rō·ḇîm (near) are both plural in form. Cambridge weighs the options: “a god, gods, or God.” On the lips of comparison with the nations the plural may be ironic — whatever gods they have — while the second half names the one LORD who is truly near.
• קְרֹבִ֣ים qə·rō·ḇîm (H7138, qârôb) — “near,” nearness in place, kinship, and time. The BSB's “near to them” is faithful, but Gill draws out the layers: God near in covenant relation, near in the tabernacle's presence, near to hear prayer.
• קָרְאֵ֖נוּ qā·rə·’ē·nū (H7121, qârâ’) is an infinitive with suffix — literally “in all our calling,” i.e. whenever we call. The nearness is not abstract proximity but answered prayer; the verse defines God's nearness by His responsiveness.

Where the English smooths the original

• צַדִּיקִ֑ם ṣad·dî·qim (H6662, tsaddîq), “righteous,” qualifies the statutes themselves — laws that are just. Poole: the greatness of a nation is in “the righteousness of its laws.” The Hebrew word is the same applied to a righteous person; the law has moral character.
• הַתּוֹרָ֣ה hat·tō·w·rāh (H8451, tôrâh) — “the instruction / law,” appearing here for the first time in the unit. The BSB renders it “law,” but its root sense is teaching, direction; it is the whole body of God's instruction, not merely statute.
• נֹתֵ֥ן nō·ṯên (H5414, nâthan) is a participle, “giving / setting.” Cambridge insists this is “Not prescribe or enforce; but offer for your decision and acceptance.” The law is laid before Israel as a thing to be received freely, putting responsibility on the hearer.

Where the English smooths the original

• הִשָּׁ֣מֶר hiš·šā·mer (H8104) is a Niphal imperative — reflexive, “guard yourself,” the verb šâmar turned back on the hearer. Paired with the next verb (“keep your soul”), it doubles the urgency. The BSB's “be on your guard” catches the sense; the Hebrew makes the self the thing guarded.
• נַפְשְׁךָ֜ nap̄·šə·ḵā (H5315, nephesh) — the BSB's “yourselves” renders “your soul / life.” The Pulpit Commentary unfolds the word: “primarily breath, then vital principle, natural life… then soul life, the soul or mind.” To forget God's works is to imperil the whole self.
• יָס֙וּרוּ֙ yā·sū·rū (H5493, sûr) means “turn aside / depart,” not the BSB's softer “slip.” The things seen do not gently fade; they turn away from the heart — the same verb used of turning from the way of obedience.
• מִלְּבָ֣בְךָ֔ mil·lə·ḇā·ḇə·ḵā (H3824, lêbâb) — “from your heart.” Cambridge clarifies the Hebrew heart is “The seat not of the emotions but of the practical intellect, or, as here, of the memory.” Forgetting is a failure of the heart's grip, not mere feeling.

Where the English smooths the original

• י֗וֹם yō·wm (H3117), “[the] day,” stands at the head with no preposition — an adverbial accusative, “on the day.” The Pulpit Commentary corrects the AV's added “Specially”: it is “a needless interpolation.” The verse is the object of “lest you forget” from v. 9 — forget not the day.
• הַקְהֶל־ haq·hel (H6950, qâhal) means “convoke / assemble.” Ellicott notes the Greek of the LXX is ekklēsiason — “Form a Church of this people” — the verb behind the New Testament ekklēsia. The gathering at Horeb is the assembly-day, the qâhâl.
• לְיִרְאָ֣ה lə·yir·’āh (H3372, yârê’), “to fear,” an infinitive. Cambridge insists this fear “is no inarticulate, brutish awe before the unknown, which we call superstition, but the vigilant, scrupulous temper of a servant to whom his lord’s will has been fully declared.” It is learned, not felt.

Where the English smooths the original

• תַּ֣חַת ta·ḥaṯ (H8478) means “under / beneath,” rendered “at the base.” The older versions read “under the mountain.” The Hebrew puts the people directly beneath the blazing height — Cambridge: “took station in the nether part of the mount.”
• לֵ֣ב lêḇ (H3820), “heart,” in the phrase ‘aḏ lêḇ haš·šā·ma·yim — literally “unto the heart of the heavens.” The BSB's “to the heavens” drops the vivid idiom. Keil: “a rhetorical description of the awful majesty of the pillar of fire… quite into the sky.”
• וַעֲרָפֶֽל׃ wa·‘ă·rā·p̄el (H6205, ‘ărâphel) is the rarest of the three darkness-words — “thick gloom,” the deep murk of a lowering storm-sky. Stacked with ‘ānān (cloud) and ḥōšeḵ (darkness), it piles obscurity on obscurity around the fire.

Where the English smooths the original

• ק֤וֹל qō·wl (H6963) appears twice, framing the verse: “the sound of words” at the start and “only a voice” at the end. The single word means both sound and voice; the BSB splits them. Israel heard qôl and only qôl — voice without shape.
• וּתְמוּנָ֛ה ū·ṯə·mū·nāh (H8544, temûnâh) is the key word — “form / shape / likeness,” rendered “form.” Cambridge: “This feeling, that seeing is more sensuous than hearing,” underlies the ban on images. They saw no temûnâh — and so could make none.
• שֹׁמְעִ֔ים šō·mə·‘îm (H8085) and rō·’îm (seeing) are both participles — “you were hearing… you were [not] seeing.” The continuous tense holds the whole event in view: throughout the theophany, sound came, form never did. Hearing is the mode of this revelation.

Where the English smooths the original

• וַיַּגֵּ֨ד way·yag·gêḏ (H5046, nâgad) literally means “to put in front, set before the face,” hence “declared / announced.” The BSB's “declared” is good; the root pictures God fronting His covenant to the people, making it openly known.
• בְּרִית֗וֹ bə·rî·ṯōw (H1285, berîth), “His covenant.” Cambridge: the root is “to bind”; a berîth may be the transaction or “the binding conditions on which it was based.” Where the parties are unequal, “the terms were imposed by the stronger” — here, God commands the covenant He gives.
• הַדְּבָרִ֑ים ‘ă·śe·reṯ had·də·ḇā·rîm is literally “the Ten Words,” not “the Ten Commandments.” The same noun dâbâr rendered “word” in v. 2 names the Decalogue here. The Pulpit Commentary keeps it: “the ten words.” The English “Commandments” supplies an interpretation the Hebrew leaves as words.

Where the English smooths the original

• וְאֹתִ֞י wə·’ō·ṯî places the object-pronoun “and me” emphatically first. Cambridge: “Heb. emphasises me.” The contrast is with v. 13: the Ten Words God spoke and wrote directly; these further statutes He gave through Moses. Two modes of one law.
• לְלַמֵּ֣ד lə·lam·mêḏ (H3925, Piel) is the same teaching-verb as v. 1, here as an infinitive of God's charge: “to teach.” Moses' teaching office (v. 1, “I am teaching”) is grounded in this divine commission — he teaches because commanded to teach.
• עֹבְרִ֥ים ‘ō·ḇə·rîm (H5674, ‘âbar), “crossing over,” a participle. The land is the one you are in the act of crossing over (the Jordan, supplied by the BSB) to possess. The whole exhortation stands on this threshold — the law taught now, to be done over there.