Deuteronomy 31:16

Bible in Basic English (1941)

And the Lord said to Moses, Now you are going to rest with your fathers; and this people will be false to me, uniting themselves to the strange gods of the land where they are going; they will be turned away from me and will not keep the agreement I have made with them.

📖 Grammatical Analysis

Original Text

וַיֹּ֤אמֶר יְהוָה֙ אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֔ה הִנְּךָ֥ שֹׁכֵ֖ב עִם־אֲבֹתֶ֑יךָ וְקָם֩ הָעָ֨ם הַזֶּ֜ה וְזָנָ֣ה ׀ אַחֲרֵ֣י ׀ אֱלֹהֵ֣י נֵֽכַר־הָאָ֗רֶץ אֲשֶׁ֨ר ה֤וּא בָא־שָׁ֙מָּה֙ בְּקִרְבּ֔וֹ וַעֲזָבַ֕נִי וְהֵפֵר֙ אֶת־בְּרִיתִ֔י אֲשֶׁ֥ר כָּרַ֖תִּי אִתּֽוֹ׃

Transliteration

wa-yōʾmer YHWH ʾel-mōšeh hinnəkā šōkēb ʿim-ʾăbōteykā wə-qām hā-ʿām ha-zeh wə-zānāh ʾaḥărê ʾĕlōhê nēkar-hā-ʾāreṣ ʾăšer hûʾ bāʾ-šāmmāh bə-qirbô wa-ʿăzābanî wə-hēpēr ʾet-bərîtî ʾăšer kārattî ʾittô

Grammar Details

• *wa-yōʾmer*: waw consecutive + Qal imperfect, 3rd masculine singular - and said
• *YHWH*: proper noun, divine name
• *ʾel-mōšeh*: preposition + proper noun - to Moses
• *hinnəkā*: particle + 2nd masculine singular suffix - behold you
• *šōkēb*: Qal participle, masculine singular - lying down/sleeping
• *ʿim-ʾăbōteykā*: preposition + noun, masculine plural construct + 2nd masculine singular suffix - with your fathers
• *wə-qām*: waw consecutive + Qal perfect, 3rd masculine singular - and will rise
• *hā-ʿām*: definite article + noun, masculine singular - the people
• *ha-zeh*: definite article + demonstrative pronoun - this
• *wə-zānāh*: waw consecutive + Qal perfect, 3rd masculine singular - and will prostitute itself
• *ʾaḥărê*: preposition - after
• *ʾĕlōhê*: noun, masculine plural construct - gods of
• *nēkar-hā-ʾāreṣ*: noun, masculine singular construct + definite article + noun, feminine singular - foreign [gods] of the land
• *ʾăšer*: relative pronoun - which
• *hûʾ*: 3rd masculine singular pronoun - he
• *bāʾ-šāmmāh*: Qal participle, masculine singular + directional particle - entering there
• *bə-qirbô*: preposition + noun, masculine singular + 3rd masculine singular suffix - in its midst
• *wa-ʿăzābanî*: waw consecutive + Qal perfect, 3rd masculine singular + 1st singular suffix - and will forsake me
• *wə-hēpēr*: waw consecutive + Hiphil perfect, 3rd masculine singular - and will break
• *ʾet-bərîtî*: direct object marker + noun, feminine singular + 1st singular suffix - my covenant
• *kārattî*: Qal perfect, 1st singular - I cut/made
• *ʾittô*: preposition + 3rd masculine singular suffix - with him

Word Meanings

• *šōkēb*: lying down/sleeping/about to die
• *ʿim-ʾăbōteykā*: with your fathers/ancestors/joining your ancestors in death
• *wə-qām*: will rise/arise/stand up
• *wə-zānāh*: prostitute itself/be unfaithful/commit idolatry
• *ʾĕlōhê nēkar*: foreign gods/strange deities/alien gods
• *wa-ʿăzābanî*: forsake me/abandon me/leave me
• *wə-hēpēr*: break/violate/nullify
• *bərît*: covenant/agreement/pact
• *kārattî*: cut/made/established

Referenced Verses

• Judg 2:12 : 12 And they gave up the Lord, the God of their fathers, who had taken them out of the land of Egypt, and went after other gods, the gods of the peoples round about them, worshipping them and moving the Lord to wrath.
• Judg 10:6 : 6 And again the children of Israel did evil in the eyes of the Lord, worshipping the Baals and Astartes, and the gods of Aram and the gods of Zidon and the gods of Moab and the gods of the children of Ammon and the gods of the Philistines; they gave up the Lord and were servants to him no longer.
• Judg 10:13 : 13 But, for all this, you have given me up and have been servants to other gods: so I will be your saviour no longer.
• Ezek 16:15 : 15 But you put your faith in the fact that you were beautiful, acting like a loose woman because you were widely talked of, and offering your cheap love to everyone who went by, whoever it might be.
• Exod 34:15 : 15 So see that you make no agreement with the people of the land, and do not go after their gods, or take part in their offerings, or be guests at their feasts,
• Hos 2:2-5 : 2 Take up the cause against your mother, take it up, for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband; let her put away her loose ways from her face, and her false ways from between her breasts; 3 For fear that I may take away her robe from her, making her uncovered as in the day of her birth; making her like a waste place and a dry land, causing her death through need of water. 4 And I will have no mercy on her children, for they are the children of her loose ways. 5 For their mother has been untrue; she who gave them birth has done things of shame, for she said, I will go after my lovers, who give me my bread and my water, my wool and my linen, my oil and my wine.
• Acts 13:36 : 36 Now David, having done God's work for his generation, went to sleep, and was put with his fathers, and his body came to destruction:
• Deut 32:15 : 15 But Jeshurun became fat and would not be controlled: you have become fat, you are thick and full of food: then he was untrue to the God who made him, giving no honour to the Rock of his salvation.
• Rev 19:2 : 2 For true and upright are his decisions; for by him has the evil woman been judged, who made the earth unclean with the sins of her body; and he has given her punishment for the blood of his servants.
• Rev 17:2-5 : 2 With whom the kings of the earth made themselves unclean, and those who are on the earth were full of the wine of her evil desires. 3 And he took me away in the Spirit into a waste land: and I saw a woman seated on a bright red beast, full of evil names, having seven heads and ten horns, 4 And the woman was clothed in purple and bright red, with ornaments of gold and stones of great price and jewels; and in her hand was a gold cup full of evil things and her unclean desires; 5 And on her brow was a name, SECRET, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF THE EVIL WOMEN AND OF THE UNCLEAN THINGS OF THE EARTH.
• Lev 20:3-6 : 3 And my face will be turned against that man, and he will be cut off from his people; because he has given his offspring to Molech, making my holy place unclean, and making my holy name common. 4 And if the people of the land do not take note of that man when he gives his offspring to Molech, and do not put him to death, 5 Then my face will be turned against him and his family, and he and all those who do evil with him will be cut off from among their people. 6 And whoever goes after those who make use of spirits and wonder-workers, doing evil with them, against him will my face be turned, and he will be cut off from among his people.
• Lev 26:15 : 15 And if you go against my rules and if you have hate in your souls for my decisions and you do not do all my orders, but go against my agreement;
• Gen 25:8 : 8 And Abraham came to his death, an old man, full of years; and he was put to rest with his people.
• Exod 32:6 : 6 So early on the day after they got up and made burned offerings and peace-offerings; and took their seats at the feast, and then gave themselves to pleasure.
• Ezek 16:25-36 : 25 You put up your high places at the top of every street, and made the grace of your form a disgusting thing, opening your feet to everyone who went by, increasing your loose ways. 26 And you went with the Egyptians, your neighbours, great of flesh; increasing your loose ways, moving me to wrath. 27 Now, then, my hand is stretched out against you, cutting down your fixed amount, and I have given you up to the desire of your haters, the daughters of the Philistines who are shamed by your loose ways. 28 And you went with the Assyrians, because of your desire which was without measure; you were acting like a loose woman with them, and still you had not enough. 29 And you went on in your loose ways, even as far as the land of Chaldaea, and still you had not enough. 30 How feeble is your heart, says the Lord, seeing that you do all these things, the work of a loose and overruling woman; 31 For you have made your arched room at the top of every street, and your high place in every open place; though you were not like a loose woman in getting together your payment. 32 The untrue wife who takes strange lovers in place of her husband! 33 They give payment to all loose women: but you give rewards to your lovers, offering them payment so that they may come to you on every side for your cheap love. 34 And in your loose behaviour you are different from other women, for no one goes after you to make love to you: and because you give payment and no payment is given to you, in this you are different from them. 35 For this cause, O loose woman, give ear to the voice of the Lord: 36 This is what the Lord has said: Because your unclean behaviour was let loose and your body uncovered in your loose ways with your lovers and with your disgusting images, and for the blood of your children which you gave to them;
• Ezek 23:5-9 : 5 And Oholah was untrue to me when she was mine; she was full of desire for her lovers, even for the Assyrians, her neighbours, 6 Who were clothed in blue, captains and rulers, all of them young men to be desired, horsemen seated on horses. 7 And she gave her unclean love to them, all of them the noblest men of Assyria: and she made herself unclean with the images of all who were desired by her. 8 And she has not given up her loose ways from the time when she was in Egypt; for when she was young they were her lovers, and by them her young breasts were crushed, and they let loose on her their unclean desire. 9 For this cause I gave her up into the hands of her lovers, into the hands of the Assyrians on whom her desire was fixed. 10 By these her shame was uncovered: they took her sons and daughters and put her to death with the sword: and she became a cause of wonder to women; for they gave her the punishment which was right. 11 And her sister Oholibah saw this, but her desire was even more unmeasured, and her loose behaviour was worse than that of her sister. 12 She was full of desire for the Assyrians, captains and rulers, her neighbours, clothed in blue, horsemen going on horses, all of them young men to be desired. 13 And I saw that she had become unclean; the two of them went the same way. 14 And her loose behaviour became worse; for she saw men pictured on a wall, pictures of the Chaldaeans painted in bright red, 15 With bands round their bodies and with head-dresses hanging round their heads, all of them looking like rulers, like the Babylonians, the land of whose birth is Chaldaea. 16 And when she saw them she was full of desire for them, and sent servants to them in Chaldaea. 17 And the Babylonians came to her, into the bed of love, and made her unclean with their loose desire, and she became unclean with them, and her soul was turned from them. 18 So her loose behaviour was clearly seen and her shame uncovered: then my soul was turned from her as it had been turned from her sister. 19 But still she went on the more with her loose behaviour, keeping in mind the early days when she had been a loose woman in the land of Egypt. 20 And she was full of desire for her lovers, whose flesh is like the flesh of asses and whose seed is like the seed of horses. 21 And she made the memory of the loose ways of her early years come back to mind, when her young breasts were crushed by the Egyptians.
• Judg 2:17-20 : 17 But still they would not give ear to their judges, but went after other gods and gave them worship; quickly turning from the way in which their fathers had gone, keeping the orders of the Lord; but they did not do so. 18 And whenever the Lord gave them judges, then the Lord was with the judge, and was their saviour from the hands of their haters all the days of the judge; for the Lord was moved by their cries of grief because of those who were cruel to them. 19 But whenever the judge was dead, they went back and did more evil than their fathers, going after other gods, to be their servants and their worshippers; giving up nothing of their sins and their hard-hearted ways. 20 And the wrath of the Lord was burning against Israel, and he said, Because this nation has not been true to my agreement which I made with their fathers, and has not given ear to my voice;
• 2 Sam 7:12 : 12 And when the time comes for you to go to rest with your fathers, I will put in your place your seed after you, the offspring of your body, and I will make his kingdom strong.
• Job 20:11 : 11 His bones are full of young strength, but it will go down with him into the dust.
• Ps 73:27 : 27 For those who are far away from you will come to destruction: you will put an end to all those who have not kept faith with you.
• Ps 106:39 : 39 So they became unclean through their works, going after their evil desires.
• Isa 57:2-8 : 2 They are at rest in their last resting-places, every one going straight before him. 3 But come near, you sons of her who is wise in secret arts, the seed of her who is false to her husband, and of the loose woman. 4 Of whom do you make sport? against whom is your mouth open wide and your tongue put out? are you not uncontrolled children, a false seed, 5 You who are burning with evil desire among the oaks, under every green tree; putting children to death in the valleys, under the cracks of the rocks? 6 Among the smooth stones of the valley is your heritage; they, even they, are your part: even to them have you made a drink offering and a meal offering. Is it possible for such things to be overlooked by me? 7 You have put your bed on a high mountain: there you went up to make your offering. 8 And on the back of the doors and on the pillars you have put your sign: for you have been false to me with another; you have made your bed wide, and made an agreement with them; you had a desire for their bed where you saw it
• Jer 2:11-13 : 11 Has any nation ever made a change in their gods, though they are no gods? but my people have given up their glory in exchange for what is of no profit. 12 Be full of wonder, O heavens, at this; be overcome with fear, be completely waste, says the Lord. 13 For my people have done two evils; they have given up me, the fountain of living waters, and have made for themselves water-holes, cut out from the rock, broken water-holes, of no use for storing water.
• Jer 3:1-3 : 1 They say, If a man puts away his wife and she goes from him and becomes another man's, will he go back to her again? will not that land have been made unclean? but though you have been acting like a loose woman with a number of lovers, will you now come back to me? says the Lord. 2 Let your eyes be lifted up to the open hilltops, and see; where have you not been taken by your lovers? You have been seated waiting for them by the wayside like an Arabian in the waste land; you have made the land unclean with your loose ways and your evil-doing. 3 So the showers have been kept back, and there has been no spring rain; still your brow is the brow of a loose woman, you will not let yourself be shamed.
• Jer 31:32 : 32 Not like the agreement which I made with their fathers, on the day when I took them by the hand to be their guide out of the land of Egypt; which agreement was broken by them, and I gave them up, says the Lord.