Deuteronomy 28:1

NET Bible® (New English Translation)

The Covenant Blessings“If you indeed obey the LORD your God and are careful to observe all his commandments I am giving you today, the LORD your God will elevate you above all the nations of the earth.

📖 Grammatical Analysis

Original Text

וְהָיָ֗ה אִם־שָׁמ֤וֹעַ תִּשְׁמּ‪[t]‬ַע֙ בְּקוֹל֙ יְהוָ֣ה אֱלֹהֶ֔יךָ לִשְׁמֹ֤ר לַעֲשׂוֹת֙ אֶת־כָּל־מִצְוֺתָ֔יו אֲשֶׁ֛ר אָנֹכִ֥י מְצַוְּךָ֖ הַיּ֑וֹם וּנְתָ֨נְךָ֜ יְהוָ֤ה אֱלֹהֶ֙יךָ֙ עֶלְי֔וֹן עַ֖ל כָּל־גּוֹיֵ֥י הָאָֽרֶץ׃

Transliteration

And hāyāh if šāmôaʿ you will tišmaʿ in qôl YHWH ʾĕlōhêkā to šĕmōr to ʿăśôt ʾet-all-miṣwōtāyw which ʾānōkî mĕṣawwĕkā the hayyôm, and will nĕtānĕkā YHWH ʾĕlōhêkā ʿelyôn upon all-gôyê the hāʾāreṣ.

Grammar Details

• *hāyāh*: perfect, consecutive, 3rd masculine singular - and it will be/come to pass
• *šāmôaʿ*: infinitive absolute - hearing [emphatic]
• *tišmaʿ*: imperfect, 2nd masculine singular - you will hear/listen/obey
• *qôl*: construct masculine singular - voice/sound of
• *YHWH*: proper name - the LORD
• *ʾĕlōhêkā*: masculine plural construct with 2nd masculine singular suffix - your God
• *šĕmōr*: infinitive construct - to keep/observe
• *ʿăśôt*: infinitive construct - to do/perform
• *ʾet*: direct object marker
• *miṣwōtāyw*: feminine plural construct with 3rd masculine singular suffix - his commandments
• *ʾānōkî*: 1st person singular pronoun - I
• *mĕṣawwĕkā*: participle, Piel, masculine singular with 2nd masculine singular suffix - commanding you
• *hayyôm*: definite article + masculine singular noun - the day/today
• *nĕtānĕkā*: perfect, consecutive with 2nd masculine singular suffix - he will set/place you
• *ʿelyôn*: masculine singular adjective - high/supreme/highest
• *gôyê*: masculine plural construct - nations/peoples of
• *hāʾāreṣ*: definite article + feminine singular noun - the earth/land

Word Meanings

• *šāmôaʿ tišmaʿ*: you will surely listen/diligently obey [emphatic construction]
• *qôl*: voice/sound/utterance
• *šĕmōr*: to keep/observe/guard/preserve
• *ʿăśôt*: to do/make/perform/accomplish
• *ʿelyôn*: high/highest/supreme/elevated

Referenced Verses

• Exod 15:26 : 26 He said,“If you will diligently obey the LORD your God, and do what is right in his sight, and pay attention to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, then all the diseases that I brought on the Egyptians I will not bring on you, for I, the LORD, am your healer.”
• Exod 23:22 : 22 But if you diligently obey him and do all that I command, then I will be an enemy to your enemies, and I will be an adversary to your adversaries.
• Lev 26:3-9 : 3 The Benefits of Obedience“‘If you walk in my statutes and are sure to obey my commandments, 4 I will give you your rains in their time so that the land will give its yield and the trees of the field will produce their fruit. 5 Threshing season will extend for you until the season for harvesting grapes, and the season for harvesting grapes will extend until sowing season, so you will eat your bread until you are satisfied, and you will live securely in your land. 6 I will grant peace in the land so that you will lie down to sleep without anyone terrifying you. I will remove harmful animals from the land, and no sword of war will pass through your land. 7 You will pursue your enemies and they will fall before you by the sword. 8 Five of you will pursue a hundred, and a hundred of you will pursue ten thousand, and your enemies will fall before you by the sword. 9 I will turn to you, make you fruitful, multiply you, and maintain my covenant with you. 10 You will still be eating stored produce from the previous year and will have to clean out what is stored from the previous year to make room for new. 11 “‘I will put my tabernacle in your midst and I will not abhor you. 12 I will walk among you, and I will be your God and you will be my people. 13 I am the LORD your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt, from being their slaves, and I broke the bars of your yoke and caused you to walk upright.
• Deut 7:12-26 : 12 Promises of Good for Covenant Obedience If you obey these ordinances and are careful to do them, the LORD your God will faithfully keep covenant with you as he promised your ancestors. 13 He will love and bless you, and make you numerous. He will bless you with many children, with the produce of your soil, your grain, your new wine, your oil, the offspring of your oxen, and the young of your flocks in the land which he promised your ancestors to give you. 14 You will be blessed beyond all peoples; there will be no barrenness among you or your livestock. 15 The LORD will protect you from all sickness, and you will not experience any of the terrible diseases that you knew in Egypt; instead he will inflict them on all those who hate you. 16 Exhortation to Destroy Canaanite Paganism You must destroy all the people whom the LORD your God is about to deliver over to you; you must not pity them or worship their gods, for that will be a snare to you. 17 If you think,“These nations are more numerous than I– how can I dispossess them?” 18 you must not fear them. You must carefully recall what the LORD your God did to Pharaoh and all Egypt, 19 the great judgments you saw, the signs and wonders, the strength and power by which he brought you out– thus the LORD your God will do to all the people you fear. 20 Furthermore, the LORD your God will release hornets among them until the very last ones who hide from you perish. 21 You must not tremble in their presence, for the LORD your God, who is present among you, is a great and awesome God. 22 He, the God who leads you, will expel the nations little by little. You will not be allowed to destroy them all at once lest the wild animals overrun you. 23 The LORD your God will give them over to you; he will throw them into a great panic until they are destroyed. 24 He will hand over their kings to you and you will erase their very names from memory. Nobody will be able to resist you until you destroy them. 25 You must burn the images of their gods, but do not covet the silver and gold that covers them so much that you take it for yourself and thus become ensnared by it; for it is abhorrent to the LORD your God. 26 You must not bring any abhorrent thing into your house and thereby become an object of divine wrath along with it. You must absolutely detest and abhor it, for it is an object of divine wrath.
• Deut 11:13 : 13 Now, if you pay close attention to my commandments that I am giving you today and love the LORD your God and serve him with all your mind and being,
• Isa 1:19 : 19 If you have a willing attitude and obey, then you will again eat the good crops of the land.
• Isa 55:2-3 : 2 Why pay money for something that will not nourish you? Why spend your hard-earned money on something that will not satisfy? Listen carefully to me and eat what is nourishing! Enjoy fine food! 3 Pay attention and come to me! Listen, so you can live! Then I will make an unconditional covenantal promise to you, just like the reliable covenantal promises I made to David.
• Luke 11:28 : 28 But he replied,“Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it!”
• John 15:14 : 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you.
• Rom 2:7 : 7 eternal life to those who by perseverance in good works seek glory and honor and immortality,
• Gal 3:10 : 10 For all who rely on doing the works of the law are under a curse, because it is written,“Cursed is everyone who does not keep on doing everything written in the book of the law.”
• Jas 2:10-11 : 10 For the one who obeys the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it. 11 For he who said,“Do not commit adultery,” also said,“Do not murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery but do commit murder, you have become a violator of the law.
• Jer 11:4 : 4 Those are the terms that I charged your ancestors to keep when I brought them out of Egypt, that place which was like an iron-smelting furnace. I said at that time,“Obey me and carry out the terms of the covenant exactly as I commanded you. If you do, you will be my people and I will be your God.
• Jer 12:16 : 16 But they must make sure to learn to follow the religious practices of my people. Once they taught my people to swear their oaths using the name of the god Baal. But then, they must swear oaths using my name, saying,“As surely as the LORD lives, I swear.” If they do these things, then they will be included among the people I call my own.
• Jer 17:24 : 24 The LORD says,‘You must make sure to obey me. You must not bring any loads through the gates of this city on the Sabbath day. You must set the Sabbath day apart to me. You must not do any work on that day.
• Luke 1:6 : 6 They were both righteous in the sight of God, following all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blamelessly.
• Luke 9:48 : 48 and said to them,“Whoever welcomes this child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me, for the one who is least among you all is the one who is great.”
• Deut 15:5 : 5 if you carefully obey him by keeping all these commandments that I am giving you today.
• Deut 26:19-27:1 : 19 Then he will elevate you above all the nations he has made and you will receive praise, fame, and honor. You will be a people holy to the LORD your God, as he has said. 1 The Assembly at Shechem Then Moses and the elders of Israel commanded the people:“Pay attention to all the commandments I am giving you today.
• Ps 91:14 : 14 The LORD says,“Because he is devoted to me, I will deliver him; I will protect him because he is loyal to me.
• Ps 106:3 : 3 How blessed are those who promote justice, and do what is right all the time!
• Ps 111:10 : 10 To obey the LORD is the fundamental principle for wise living; all who carry out his precepts acquire good moral insight. He will receive praise forever.
• Ps 119:6 : 6 Then I would not be ashamed, if I were focused on all your commands.
• Ps 119:128 : 128 For this reason I carefully follow all your precepts. I hate all deceitful actions.
• Ps 148:14 : 14 He has made his people victorious, and given all his loyal followers reason to praise– the Israelites, the people who are close to him. Praise the LORD!
• Isa 3:10 : 10 Tell the innocent it will go well with them, for they will be rewarded for what they have done.