Deuteronomy 28:52

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

They shall besiege you in all your gates, until your high and fortified walls come down, in which you trusted, throughout all your land; and they shall besiege you in all your gates throughout all your land, which Yahweh your God has given you.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Highlights

1 first appearance in the Hebrew Bible

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הַגְּבֹה֣וֹת

gâbôahh

H1364

“the · high”

Particle, Definite Article + Adjective, Adjective, Feminine, Plural, Absolute

Appears 37× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Genesis 7:19

Full BDB Definition

Origin: from H1361

TWOT: 305a

high, exalted (adjective) - high, tall - high (in position) - proud, haughty - loftiness (noun masculine)

About this verse

These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →

26: words
15: distinct lemmas
Pentateuch: section

First appearance in Scripture

This word makes its first canonical appearance in the Hebrew Bible here:

בֹּטֵ֥חַ to trust H982

Shared distinctive vocabulary

הַגְּבֹה֣וֹת high H1364 occurs in 32 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

5 verbs
11 nouns
2 adjectives
1 pronoun
5 prepositions
2 particles

Verb forms

וְהֵצַ֨ר Hiphil · Sequential Perfect
רֶ֤דֶת Qal · Infinitive Construct
בֹּטֵ֥חַ Qal · Participle Active
וְהֵצַ֤ר Hiphil · Sequential Perfect
נָתַ֛ן Qal · Perfect

Repetition

Words recur within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:

בְּכָל all H3605 ×4
וְהֵצַ֨ר to bind H6887 ×2
שְׁעָרֶ֗יךָ gate H8179 ×2
אַרְצֶ֑ךָ land H776 ×2
אֲשֶׁ֥ר which H834 ×2

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 44 words from the Hebrew and 38 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — closely comparable.

A rough comparison of the two English renderings, which tokenize alike — not a word-level alignment.

Word counts can differ between the Hebrew and the Greek without any difference in meaning — e.g. the Hebrew direct-object marker אֵת has no separate Greek word, and Greek often adds the article ὁ.

In the original languages it is 26 Hebrew tokens and 45 Greek tokens — but the two are counted differently (Hebrew bundles its prefixes and suffixes into one token; the Greek is in lemma form), so that isn’t a like-for-like length.

Cross-references

Topical passages linked to Deuteronomy 28:52 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Leviticus 26:25 I will bring a sword upon you, that will execute the vengeance of the covenant; and you will be gathered together within your cities: and I will send the pestilence among you; and you will be delivered into the hand of the enemy.
2 Kings 17:1–6 In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah began Hoshea the son of Elah to reign in Samaria over Israel, [and reigned] nine years.
2 Kings 18:13 Now in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah did Sennacherib king of Assyria come up against all the fortified cities of Judah, and took them.
2 Kings 24:10–11 At that time the servants of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up to Jerusalem, and the city was besieged.
2 Kings 25:1–4 It happened in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came, he and all his army, against Jerusalem, and encamped against it; and they built forts against it round about.
Isaiah 1:7 Your country is desolate. Your cities are burned with fire. Strangers devour your land in your presence, And it is desolate, As overthrown by strangers.
Isaiah 62:8 Yahweh has sworn by his right hand, and by the arm of his strength, Surely I will no more give your grain to be food for your enemies; and foreigners shall not drink your new wine, for which you have labored:
Jeremiah 10:18 For thus says Yahweh, Behold, I will sling out the inhabitants of the land at this time, and will distress them, that they may feel [it].

Jeremiah 21:4–7 Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, Behold, I will turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands, with which you fight against the king of Babylon, and against the Chaldeans who besiege you, without the walls; and I will gather them into the midst of this city.
Jeremiah 37:8 The Chaldeans shall come again, and fight against this city; and they shall take it, and burn it with fire.
Jeremiah 39:1–3 It happened when Jerusalem was taken, (in the ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the tenth month, came Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon and all his army against Jerusalem, and besieged it;
Jeremiah 52:4–7 It happened in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon came, he and all his army, against Jerusalem, and encamped against it; and they built forts against it round about.
Ezekiel 4:1–8 You also, son of man, take a tile, and lay it before you, and portray on it a city, even Jerusalem:
Daniel 9:26 After the sixty-two weeks the Anointed One shall be cut off, and shall have nothing: and the people of the prince who shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end of it shall be with a flood, and even to the end shall be war; desolations are determined.
Zephaniah 1:15–16 That day is a day of wrath, a day of distress and anguish, a day of trouble and ruin, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness,
Zechariah 12:2 "Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of reeling to all the surrounding peoples, and on Judah also will it be in the siege against Jerusalem.

Zechariah 14:2 For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city will be taken, the houses rifled, and the women ravished. half of the city will go out into captivity, and the rest of the people will not be cut off from the city.
Matthew 22:7 When the king heard that, he was angry, and he sent his armies, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city.
Matthew 24:15–16 "When, therefore, you see the abomination of desolation, which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand),
Luke 19:43–44 For the days will come on you, when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you, surround you, hem you in on every side,
Luke 21:20–24 "But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is at hand.

Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).

Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint

The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.

These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.

Hebrew Deuteronomy 28:52 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וְהֵצַ֨ר לְךָ֜ בְּכָל שְׁעָרֶ֗יךָ עַ֣ד רֶ֤דֶת חֹמֹתֶ֨יךָ֙ הַגְּבֹה֣וֹת וְהַבְּצֻר֔וֹת אֲשֶׁ֥ר אַתָּ֛ה בֹּטֵ֥חַ בָּהֵ֖ן בְּכָל אַרְצֶ֑ךָ וְהֵצַ֤ר לְךָ֙ בְּכָל שְׁעָרֶ֔יךָ בְּכָ֨ל אַרְצְךָ֔ אֲשֶׁ֥ר נָתַ֛ן יְהוָ֥ה אֱלֹהֶ֖יךָ לָֽךְ

They shall besiege you in all your gates, until your high and fortified walls come down, in which you trusted, throughout all your land; and they shall besiege you in all your gates throughout all your land, which Yahweh your God has given you.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Deuteronomy 28:52 Septuagint · lemma form

καί ἐκτρίβω σύ ἐν πᾶς ὁ πόλις σύ ἕως ἄν κατααἱρέω ὁ τεῖχος σύ ὁ ὑψηλός καί ὁ ὀχυρός ἐπί ὅς σύ πείθω ἐπί αὐτός ἐν πᾶς ὁ γῆ σύ καί θλίβω σύ ἐν πᾶς ὁ πόλις σύ ὅς δίδωμι σύ κύριος ὁ θεός σύ

and have utterly crushed you in your cities, until the high and strong walls be destroyed, in which you trust, in all your land; and it shall afflict you in your cities, which he has given to you.

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) (Public Domain). How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →

Targum (Aramaic paraphrase)

The Targum is the ancient Jewish Aramaic paraphrase of the Hebrew Scriptures — an interpretive translation, not the Hebrew text itself. Onkelos (literal) and Pseudo-Jonathan (expansive) render the Torah, and Jonathan the Prophets. Coverage is partial: where no permissively-licensed English translation exists for a verse, only the Aramaic is shown. This is verse-level text, not a word-by-word alignment to the Hebrew.

Targum Onkelos Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)

וְיָעֵק לָךְ בְּכָל קִרְוָיךְ עַד דְיִכְבַּשׁ שׁוּרָיךְ רָמַיָא וּכְרִיכַיָא דִי אַתְּ רָחֵץ לְאִשְׁתֵּזָבָא בְּהֵן בְּכָל אַרְעָךְ וְיָעֵק לָךְ בְּכָל קִרְוָיךְ בְּכָל אַרְעָךְ דִי יְהַב יְיָ אֱלָהָךְ לָךְ

(no public-domain English translation for this verse)

Targum Onkelos — Aramaic: “Onkelos Genesis” (public domain); “Onkelos Exodus” (public domain); “Onkelos Leviticus” (public domain); “Onkelos Numbers” (public domain); “Onkelos Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “J.W. Etheridge. The Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan Ben Uzziel on the Pentateuch. London: Longmans, Green, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)

וְיָעִיקוּן לְכוֹן בְּכָל קִירְוֵיכוֹן עַד זְמַן דִי יֵחְתוּן אֲכוֹלֵיכוֹן רָמַיָא וְתָלִילַיָא דְאַתּוּן רְחִיצִין בְּהוֹן לְאִשְׁתֵּיזְבָא בְּהוֹן בְּכָל אַרְעֲכוֹן וְיָעִיקוּן לְכוֹן בְּכָל קִירְוֵיכוֹן בְּכָל אַרְעֲכוֹן דִיהַב יְיָ אֱלָהָכוֹן לְכוֹן

And they will shut you up in your cities until they have demolished your high walls whereby you trusted to be saved in all your land; for they shall besiege you in all your cities, in the whole land which the Lord your God gave you.

Targum Pseudo-Jonathan — Aramaic: “Targum Jonathan on Genesis” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Exodus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Leviticus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Numbers” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel, trans. J. W. Etheridge, London, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.

Commentary

Notes on Deuteronomy 28:52 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.

Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →

Trapp's Complete Commentary

John Trapp

Deu 28:52 And he shall besiege thee in all thy gates, until thy high and fenced walls come down, wherein thou trustedst, throughout all thy land: and he shall besiege thee in all thy gates throughout all thy land, which the LORD thy God hath given thee.

Ver. 52. In all thy gates.] See this fulfilled in 2Ki 17:5; 2Ki 25:1-2.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Joseph Benson's Commentary

Deu 28:52. He shall besiege thee in all thy gates — Thus did Shalmaneser, Sennacherib, and Nebuchadnezzar. See 2Ki 18:9-10; 2Ki 18:13, and 2Ki 25:10. But this prediction was especially fulfilled by the Romans, to whom the best fortified places in Judea were forced to yield, as may be seen in Josephus’s History of the Jewish war, which is the best commentary on this part of the prophecy. And the Jews might well be said to trust in their high and fenced walls; for they seldom ventured to fight in the open field. In particular, they confided in the strength and situation of Jerusalem, as the Jebusites, the former inhabitants of the place, had done before them, 2Sa 5:6-7.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Geneva Bible (1599)

Geneva Bible translators

Or, gates.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown

he shall besiege thee . . . until thy high and fenced walls come down--All the fortified places to which the people betook themselves for safety were burnt or demolished, and the walls of Jerusalem itself razed to the ground.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Adam Clarke's Commentary

Verse 52. He - Nebuchadnezzar first, (2Kg 25:1-2, c.,) and Titus next shall besiege thee - beset thee round on every side, and cast a trench around thee: viz., lines of circumvallation, as our Lord predicted; (see Mt 24:1, c., and Lu 21:5, &c.) in all thy gates throughout all thy land - all thy fenced cities, which points out that their subjugation should be complete, as both Jerusalem and all their fortified places should be taken. This was done literally by Nebuchadnezzar and the Romans.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(52) And he shall besiege thee in all thy gates.—The siege of the last two “fenced cities” by Nebuchadnezzar’s army is mentioned in Jer_34:7. The siege and capture of Jotapata by the Romans, in spite of all the efforts of the Jews to defend it, is specially recorded by Josephus.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne

52. in all thy gates] Deu_12:17; come down, Deu_20:20; wherein thou trustedst, so Jer_5:17.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John Gill's Exposition

And the tender and delicate woman amongst you,.... Who is instanced in because of her sex, which is more pitiful and compassionate, and especially one that has been brought up genteelly, and has always lived deliciously, on the most delicate fare, and nicest dainties, and used to all the delights of nature:

which would not venture to set her foot upon the ground for delicateness and tenderness; for fear of taking cold, or defiling her feet:

her eye shall be evil towards the husband of her bosom, and towards her son, and towards her daughter; begrudge them every bit they eat, and restrain food from them as much as in her lies, and even snatch it out of their mouths; so Josephus (e) relates, that"women snatched the food out of the mouths of their husbands, and sons out of the mouths of their fathers; and, what is most miserable, mothers out of the mouths of their infants.''

(e) De Bello Jud. l. 5. c. l0. sect. 3.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

The Pulpit Commentary

Vers. 52-57. (cf. Lev_26:29; 2Ki_6:24-30; Jer_19:9; Lam_2:20; Lam_4:10)

The high and fenced walls.

God"s enemies will ultimately be driven from all their defenses. Cities "great and fenced up to heaven" will be no defense to them, any more than they were to the Canaanites. (Deu_9:1) Horses and chariots, (Psa_20:7) numbers, prowess, wealth, (Pro_10:15) arts of policy, leagues with foreign powers, (Isa 30) afford no protection when God is the besieger. Spiritually, the sinner will ultimately be driven out of every "refuge of lies.

1. Self-righteousness; every mouth shall be stopped. (Rom_3:19)

2. False trusts. (Mat_3:9 Mat_7:22)

3. Evasions and excuses. J.O. (Mat_25:26; Luk_14:18)

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Scofield Reference Notes

C. I. Scofield

trustedst

(See Scofield "Psa 2:12").

The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

unfoldingWord translationNotes

Door43 World Missions Community

General Information:

Moses continues describing the army that will attack the Israelites if they do not obey Yahweh. He speaks to the Israelites as if they were one man, so the words "you" and "your" here are singular. (See: Forms of You)

you in all your city gates

Here the phrase "city gates" represents a city. AT: "your cities" (See: Synecdoche)

the fruit of your own body, the flesh of your sons and of your daughters

Here "the flesh of your sons and of your daughters" explains the metaphor "the fruit of your own body." The people will be so hungry after the enemy army surrounds their city that they will eat their own children. (See: Metaphor and Parallelism)

the fruit of your own body

This speaks of children as if they were fruit that was produced by the bodies of their parents. AT: "your own children" (See: Metaphor)

translationWords

siege

gate

trust

God

fruit

body

flesh

son

adversary

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

Rashi

Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (Rashi)

עד רדת חמתיך — The word רדת means subjugation (רדוי) and conquest (cf. Rashi on Deuteronomy 20:20).

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.

Lesson kit

Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.

Deuteronomy, in the Pentateuch, opens this verse with 26 words (15 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is gâbôahh (“high”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

What does “high” (gâbôahh) contribute to the verse as a whole?
The word “to trust” first appears here in Scripture. What is being introduced at this debut?
Genesis 7:19 shares the word «high» with this verse. How do the two illuminate each other?
“all” occurs 4× in this one verse. What is the effect of the repetition?
These translations render this verse differently; the difference is in the English rendering, not the original. What questions does that raise?
The verb «וְהֵצַ֨ר» is Hiphil Sequential Perfect. How does its form color the action?
Reading how Trapp's Complete Commentary and Joseph Benson's Commentary read this verse, where do the two commentators agree and where do they part?

Things to notice

1 word makes its first canonical appearance in Scripture here.
This verse counts 26 Hebrew ↔ 45 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 14 words in this verse.
“all” occurs 4× in this single verse.
15 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 26 words in this verse.