Deuteronomy 8:19

NET Bible® (New English Translation)

Now if you forget the LORD your God at all and follow other gods, worshiping and prostrating yourselves before them, I testify to you today that you will surely be annihilated.

📖 Grammatical Analysis

Original Text

וְהָיָ֗ה אִם־שָׁכֹ֤חַ תִּשְׁכַּח֙ אֶת־יְהוָ֣ה אֱלֹהֶ֔יךָ וְהָֽלַכְתָּ֗ אַחֲרֵי֙ אֱלֹהִ֣ים אֲחֵרִ֔ים וַעֲבַדְתָּ֖ם וְהִשְׁתַּחֲוִ֣יתָ לָהֶ֑ם הַעִדֹ֤תִי בָכֶם֙ הַיּ֔וֹם כִּ֥י אָבֹ֖ד תֹּאבֵדֽוּן׃

Transliteration

And-hāyāh if-šākōaḥ tiškaḥ ʾet-YHWH ʾĕlōhêkā and-hālaktā after ʾĕlōhîm ʾăḥērîm and-ʿăbadtām and-hištaḥăwîtā to-them haʿidōtî against-you the-yôm that ʾābōd tōʾbēdûn.

Grammar Details

• *hāyāh*: Qal perfect 3rd person masculine singular - it will be
• *šākōaḥ*: Qal infinitive absolute - to forget
• *tiškaḥ*: Qal imperfect 2nd person masculine singular - you forget
• *ʾet*: direct object marker
• *YHWH*: proper noun - the divine name
• *ʾĕlōhêkā*: masculine plural noun with 2nd person masculine singular suffix - your God
• *hālaktā*: Qal perfect 2nd person masculine singular - you go
• *ʾĕlōhîm*: masculine plural noun - gods
• *ʾăḥērîm*: masculine plural adjective - other
• *ʿăbadtām*: Qal perfect 2nd person masculine singular + 3rd person masculine plural suffix - you serve them
• *hištaḥăwîtā*: Hishtaphel perfect 2nd person masculine singular - you bow down
• *haʿidōtî*: Hiphil perfect 1st person singular - I testify
• *yôm*: masculine singular noun with definite article - the day
• *ʾābōd*: Qal infinitive absolute - to perish
• *tōʾbēdûn*: Qal imperfect 2nd person masculine plural paragogic nun - you shall perish

Word Meanings

• *hāyāh*: it will be/happen/come to pass
• *šākōaḥ* *tiškaḥ*: utterly forget/surely forget/completely forget
• *hālaktā*: you go/walk/follow
• *ʾĕlōhîm* *ʾăḥērîm*: other gods/foreign gods
• *ʿăbadtām*: you serve them/worship them
• *hištaḥăwîtā*: you bow down/prostrate yourself/worship
• *haʿidōtî*: I testify/warn/witness against
• *ʾābōd* *tōʾbēdûn*: you shall surely perish/utterly be destroyed/completely be lost

Referenced Verses

• Deut 4:26 : 26 I invoke heaven and earth as witnesses against you today that you will surely and swiftly be removed from the very land you are about to cross the Jordan to possess. You will not last long there because you will surely be annihilated.
• Deut 28:58-68 : 58 The Curse of Covenant Termination“If you refuse to obey all the words of this law, the things written in this scroll, and refuse to fear this glorious and awesome name, the LORD your God, 59 then the LORD will increase your punishments and those of your descendants– great and long-lasting afflictions and severe, enduring illnesses. 60 He will infect you with all the diseases of Egypt that you dreaded, and they will persistently afflict you. 61 Moreover, the LORD will bring upon you every kind of sickness and plague not mentioned in this scroll of commandments, until you have perished. 62 There will be very few of you left, though at one time you were as numerous as the stars in the sky, because you will have disobeyed the LORD your God. 63 This is what will happen: Just as the LORD delighted to do good for you and make you numerous, he will take delight in destroying and decimating you. You will be uprooted from the land you are about to possess. 64 The LORD will scatter you among all nations, from one end of the earth to the other. There you will worship other gods that neither you nor your ancestors have known, gods of wood and stone. 65 Among those nations you will have no rest nor will there be a place of peaceful rest for the soles of your feet, for there the LORD will give you an anxious heart, failing eyesight, and a spirit of despair. 66 Your life will hang in doubt before you; you will be terrified by night and day and will have no certainty of surviving from one day to the next. 67 In the morning you will say,‘If only it were evening!’ And in the evening you will say,‘I wish it were morning!’ because of the things you will fear and the things you will see. 68 Then the LORD will make you return to Egypt by ship, over a route I said to you that you would never see again. There you will sell yourselves to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.”
• Deut 29:25-28 : 25 Then people will say,“Because they abandoned the covenant of the LORD, the God of their ancestors, which he made with them when he brought them out of the land of Egypt. 26 They went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods they did not know and that he did not permit them to worship. 27 That is why the LORD’s anger erupted against this land, bringing on it all the curses written in this scroll. 28 So the LORD has uprooted them from their land in anger, wrath, and great rage and has deported them to another land, as is clear today.”
• Deut 30:18-19 : 18 I declare to you this very day that you will certainly perish! You will not extend your time in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess. 19 Today I invoke heaven and earth as a witness against you that I have set life and death, blessing and curse, before you. Therefore choose life so that you and your descendants may live!
• Josh 23:13 : 13 know for certain that the LORD our God will no longer drive out these nations from before you. They will trap and ensnare you; they will be a whip that tears your sides and thorns that blind your eyes until you disappear from this good land the LORD your God gave you.
• 1 Sam 12:25 : 25 But if you continue to do evil, both you and your king will be swept away.”
• Dan 9:2 : 2 in the first year of his reign I, Daniel, came to understand from the sacred books that the number of years for the fulfilling of the desolation of Jerusalem, which had come as the LORD’s message to the prophet Jeremiah, would be 70 years.
• Amos 3:2 : 2 “I have chosen you alone from all the clans of the earth. Therefore I will punish you for all your sins.”
• Zeph 1:18 : 18 Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to deliver them in the day of the LORD’s angry judgment. The whole earth will be consumed by his fiery wrath. Indeed, he will bring terrifying destruction on all who live on the earth.”
• Zeph 3:6 : 6 The Lord’s Judgment will Purify“I destroyed nations; their walled cities are in ruins. I turned their streets into ruins; no one passes through them. Their cities are desolate; no one lives there.
• Luke 12:47-48 : 47 That servant who knew his master’s will but did not get ready or do what his master asked will receive a severe beating. 48 But the one who did not know his master’s will and did things worthy of punishment will receive a light beating. From everyone who has been given much, much will be required, and from the one who has been entrusted with much, even more will be asked.
• Luke 13:3 : 3 No, I tell you! But unless you repent, you will all perish as well!
• Luke 13:5 : 5 No, I tell you! But unless you repent you will all perish as well!”