Deuteronomy 28:29

World English Bible (2000)

and you shall grope at noonday, as the blind gropes in darkness, and you shall not prosper in your ways: and you shall be only oppressed and robbed always, and there shall be none to save you.

📖 Grammatical Analysis

Original Text

וְהָיִ֜יתָ מְמַשֵּׁ֣שׁ בַּֽצָהֳרַ֗יִם כַּאֲשֶׁ֨ר יְמַשֵּׁ֤שׁ הַעִוֵּר֙ בָּאֲפֵלָ֔ה וְלֹ֥א תַצְלִ֖יחַ אֶת־דְּרָכֶ֑יךָ וְהָיִ֜יתָ אַ֣ךְ עָשׁ֧וּק וְגָז֛וּל כָּל־הַיָּמִ֖ים וְאֵ֥ין מוֹשִֽׁיעַ׃

Transliteration

wəhāyîtā məmaššēš baṣṣohŏrayim kaʾăšer yəmaššēš haʿiwwēr bāʾăpēlâ wəlōʾ taṣlîaḥ ʾet-dərākêkā wəhāyîtā ʾak ʿāšûq wəgāzûl kol-hayyāmîm wəʾên môšîaʿ

Grammar Details

• *wəhāyîtā*: conjunction (wə-) + qal perfect, 2nd person masculine singular - and you will be
• *məmaššēš*: piel participle, masculine singular - groping/feeling about
• *baṣṣohŏrayim*: preposition (bə-) + definite article + noun, masculine dual - at noon/midday
• *kaʾăšer*: preposition (kə-) + relative pronoun - as/like
• *yəmaššēš*: piel imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular - he gropes
• *haʿiwwēr*: definite article + adjective, masculine singular - the blind person
• *bāʾăpēlâ*: preposition (bə-) + definite article + noun, feminine singular - in the darkness
• *wəlōʾ*: conjunction (wə-) + negative particle - and not
• *taṣlîaḥ*: hiphil imperfect, 2nd person masculine singular - you will succeed/prosper
• *ʾet*-*dərākêkā*: direct object marker + noun, feminine plural with 2nd person masculine singular suffix - your ways/paths
• *ʾak*: adverb - only/surely
• *ʿāšûq*: qal passive participle, masculine singular - oppressed/defrauded
• *wəgāzûl*: conjunction (wə-) + qal passive participle, masculine singular - and robbed/plundered
• *kol*-*hayyāmîm*: noun, masculine singular construct + definite article + noun, masculine plural - all the days
• *wəʾên*: conjunction (wə-) + particle of negation - and there is no
• *môšîaʿ*: hiphil participle, masculine singular - savior/deliverer

Word Meanings

• *məmaššēš*: groping/feeling around/searching by touch
• *ṣohŏrayim*: noon/midday/brightest part of day
• *yəmaššēš*: gropes/feels around/searches by touch
• *ʿiwwēr*: blind person
• *ʾăpēlâ*: darkness/thick darkness
• *taṣlîaḥ*: succeed/prosper/make progress
• *dərākêkā*: your ways/paths/roads
• *ʾak*: only/surely/indeed
• *ʿāšûq*: oppressed/defrauded/exploited
• *gāzûl*: robbed/plundered/despoiled
• *hayyāmîm*: the days/time
• *môšîaʿ*: savior/deliverer/rescuer

Referenced Verses

• Isa 59:10 : 10 We grope for the wall like the blind; yes, we grope as those who have no eyes: we stumble at noonday as in the twilight; among those who are lusty we are as dead men.
• Job 5:14 : 14 They meet with darkness in the day time, and grope at noonday as in the night.
• Ps 106:40-42 : 40 Therefore Yahweh burned with anger against his people. He abhorred his inheritance. 41 He gave them into the hand of the nations. Those who hated them ruled over them. 42 Their enemies also oppressed them. They were brought into subjection under their hand.
• Judg 3:14 : 14 The children of Israel served Eglon the king of Moab eighteen years.
• Judg 4:2-3 : 2 Yahweh sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor; the captain of whose army was Sisera, who lived in Harosheth of the Gentiles. 3 The children of Israel cried to Yahweh: for he had nine hundred chariots of iron; and twenty years he mightily oppressed the children of Israel.
• Judg 6:1-6 : 1 The children of Israel did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh: and Yahweh delivered them into the hand of Midian seven years. 2 The hand of Midian prevailed against Israel; and because of Midian the children of Israel made them the dens which are in the mountains, and the caves, and the strongholds. 3 So it was, when Israel had sown, that the Midianites came up, and the Amalekites, and the children of the east; they came up against them; 4 and they encamped against them, and destroyed the increase of the earth, until you come to Gaza, and left no sustenance in Israel, neither sheep, nor ox, nor donkey. 5 For they came up with their livestock and their tents; they came in as locusts for multitude; both they and their camels were without number: and they came into the land to destroy it. 6 Israel was brought very low because of Midian; and the children of Israel cried to Yahweh.
• Judg 10:8 : 8 They troubled and oppressed the children of Israel that year: eighteen years [oppressed they] all the children of Israel that were beyond the Jordan in the land of the Amorites, which is in Gilead.
• Judg 13:1 : 1 The children of Israel again did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh; and Yahweh delivered them into the hand of the Philistines forty years.
• 1 Sam 13:5-7 : 5 The Philistines assembled themselves together to fight with Israel, thirty thousand chariots, and six thousand horsemen, and people as the sand which is on the seashore in multitude: and they came up, and encamped in Michmash, eastward of Beth Aven. 6 When the men of Israel saw that they were in a strait (for the people were distressed), then the people did hide themselves in caves, and in thickets, and in rocks, and in coverts, and in pits. 7 Now some of the Hebrews had gone over the Jordan to the land of Gad and Gilead; but as for Saul, he was yet in Gilgal, and all the people followed him trembling.
• 1 Sam 13:19-22 : 19 Now there was no smith found throughout all the land of Israel; for the Philistines said, "Lest the Hebrews make them swords or spears;" 20 but all the Israelites went down to the Philistines, to sharpen every man his plowshare, mattock, axe, and sickle; 21 yet they had a file for the mattocks, and for the plowshares, and for the forks, and for the axes, and to set the goads. 22 So it came to pass in the day of battle, that there was neither sword nor spear found in the hand of any of the people who were with Saul and Jonathan: but with Saul and with Jonathan his son was there found.
• Neh 9:26-29 : 26 "Nevertheless they were disobedient, and rebelled against you, and cast your law behind their back, and killed your prophets that testified against them to turn them again to you, and they committed awful blasphemies. 27 Therefore you delivered them into the hand of their adversaries, who distressed them. In the time of their trouble, when they cried to you, you heard from heaven; and according to your manifold mercies you gave them saviors who saved them out of the hand of their adversaries. 28 But after they had rest, they did evil again before you; therefore left you them in the hand of their enemies, so that they had the dominion over them; yet when they returned, and cried to you, you heard from heaven; and many times you delivered them according to your mercies, 29 and testified against them, that you might bring them again to your law. Yet they dealt proudly, and didn't listen to your commandments, but sinned against your ordinances, (which if a man does, he shall live in them), turned their backs, stiffened their neck, and would not hear.
• Neh 9:37 : 37 It yields much increase to the kings whom you have set over us because of our sins: also they have power over our bodies, and over our livestock, at their pleasure, and we are in great distress.
• Lam 5:8 : 8 Servants rule over us: There is none to deliver us out of their hand.
• Lam 5:17 : 17 For this our heart is faint; For these things our eyes are dim;
• Zeph 1:17 : 17 I will bring distress on men, that they will walk like blind men, because they have sinned against Yahweh, and their blood will be poured out like dust, and their flesh like dung.
• Acts 21:24 : 24 Take them, and purify yourself with them, and pay their expenses for them, that they may shave their heads. Then all will know that there is no truth in the things that they have been informed about you, but that you yourself also walk keeping the law.
• Rom 11:7-9 : 7 What then? That which Israel seeks for, that he didn't obtain, but the chosen ones obtained it, and the rest were hardened. 8 According as it is written, "God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear, to this very day." 9 David says, "Let their table be made a snare, and a trap, a stumbling block, and a retribution to them. 10 Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see. Bow down their back always."
• Rom 11:25 : 25 For I don't desire you to be ignorant, brothers, of this mystery, so that you won't be wise in your own conceits, that a partial hardening has happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in,
• 2 Cor 4:3-4 : 3 Even if our Good News is veiled, it is veiled in those who perish; 4 in whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that the light of the Good News of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should not dawn on them.
• Job 12:25 : 25 They grope in the dark without light. He makes them stagger like a drunken man.
• Ps 69:23-24 : 23 Let their eyes be darkened, so that they can't see. Let their backs be continually bent. 24 Pour out your indignation on them. Let the fierceness of your anger overtake them.