Deuteronomy 29:3

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

the great trials which your eyes saw, the signs, and those great wonders:

World English Bible · Public Domain

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הַמַּסּוֹת֙

maççâh

H4531

“the · trials”

Particle, Definite Article + Noun, Common, Feminine, Plural, Absolute

Appears 5× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Deuteronomy 4:34

Full BDB Definition

Origin: from H5254

TWOT: 1223b

despair, test - despair - testing, proving, trial

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 →

9: words
8: distinct lemmas
Pentateuch: section

Notable vocabulary

The rarest word here is הַמַּסּוֹת֙ trial H4531 — appearing just 5 times in the whole Hebrew Bible.

Shared distinctive vocabulary

הַמַּסּוֹת֙ trial H4531 occurs in 5 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

1 verb
4 nouns
2 adjectives
1 pronoun
1 particle

Verb forms

רָא֖וּ Qal · Perfect

Repetition

A word recurs within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:

הַגְּדֹלֹ֔ת great H1419 ×2

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 13 words from the Hebrew and 14 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.

Cross-references

Topical passages linked to Deuteronomy 29:3 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Deuteronomy 4:32–35 For ask now of the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that God created man on the earth, and from the one end of the sky to the other, whether there has been [any such thing] as this great thing is, or has been heard like it?
Deuteronomy 7:18–19 you shall not be afraid of them: you shall well remember what Yahweh your God did to Pharaoh, and to all Egypt;
Nehemiah 9:9–11 You saw the affliction of our fathers in Egypt, and heard their cry by the Red Sea,

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 29:3 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

הַמַּסּוֹת֙ הַגְּדֹלֹ֔ת אֲשֶׁ֥ר רָא֖וּ עֵינֶ֑יךָ הָאֹתֹ֧ת וְהַמֹּפְתִ֛ים הַגְּדֹלִ֖ים הָהֵֽם

the great trials which your eyes saw, the signs, and those great wonders:

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Deuteronomy 29:3 Septuagint · lemma form

καί οὐ δίδωμι κύριος ὁ θεός σύ καρδία οἶδα καί ὀφθαλμός βλέπω καί οὖς ἀκούω ἕως ὁ ἡμέρα οὗτος

the great temptations which your eyes have seen, the signs, and those great wonders.

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)

וְלָא יְהַב יְיָ לְכוֹן לִבָּא לְמִדַע וְעַיְנִין לְמֶחֱזֵי וְאֻדְנִין לְמִשְׁמַע עַד יוֹמָא הָדֵין

(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)

וְלָא יְהַב מֵימְרָא דַיְיָ לְכוֹן לִבָּא לְמִנְשֵׁי אֱלָהֵן לְמִנְדַע וְעַיְינִין לְמִרְמְזָא אֱלָהֵין לְמֶחֱמֵי וְאוּדְנִין לְטַמְטְמָא אֱלָהֵין לְצַיְיתָא וְאַתּוּן נְשִׁיתוּן אוֹרַיְיתָא דְלִבְּכוֹן וּרְמַזְתּוּן בְּעַיְינֵיכוֹן וְטַמְטַמְתּוּן אוּדְנֵיכוֹן בִּזְמַן יוֹמָא הָדֵין

And the Word of the Lord hath given you a heart not to forget, but to understand; eyes, not to blink, but to see; ears, not to be stopped, but to listen with: yet you have forgotten the law with your heart, and have blinked with your eyes, and have stopped your ears, unto the time of this day.

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 29:3 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 29:3 The great temptations which thine eyes have seen, the signs, and those great miracles:

Ver. 3. The signs and those great miracles.] None of all which wrought kindly upon them to effectual conversion, because God denied concourse and influence of his grace. Jeroboam had as great a miracle wrought before him in the drying up of his hand as St Paul at his conversion, yet was he not wrought upon, because the Spirit did not set it on.

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.

Geneva Bible (1599)

Geneva Bible translators

The proofs of my power.

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

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne

3. tests … signs … portents] See on Deu_4:34, Deu_7:19. Which thine eyes saw, Deu_4:9, Deu_7:19, Deu_10:21; the Sg. betrays the composite nature of the passage.

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

The great temptations which thine eyes have seen,.... Or trials, the ten plagues which tried the Egyptians, whether they would let Israel go; and tried the Israelites, whether they would believe in the Lord, and trust in his almighty power to deliver them:

the signs and those great miracles: as the said plagues were such as were beyond the power of nature to produce, and which only Omnipotence could really effect.

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

Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary

Seen. Many who were present had seen the plagues of Egypt, and what the Israelites themselves had suffered in the wilderness. (Calmet)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Whedon's Commentary on the Bible

Daniel D. Whedon

3. The great temptations — The Hebrew word translated temptations has reference to the plagues which came upon the Egyptians, and which were tests or proofs of the power of Israel’s God. The miracles wrought and the signs given were these proofs.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The Pulpit Commentary

Temptations, signs, miracles. (Deu_4:34 Deu_7:19)

I THE RELATION OF THE TERMS. "Temptations" is a wider category than "signs," and "signs" is a wider category than "miracles" or "wonders." All "wonders," however, in the kingdom of God have the moral significance of "signs;" and all "signs and wonders" are "trials" of the disposition.

II THE APPLICATION OF THE TERMS.

1. Wonders, meaning strictly, supernatural occurrences.

2. Signs. Anything is a "sign" which indicates God"s presence, (Luk_11:20) which discovers a law of his working, which is a pledge of his grace, which furnishes a symbol of a spiritual reality. Miracles were signs." Nature is a "sign" in her order, regularity, and invariableness. (Gen_1:14 Gen_8:22 Gen_9:13; Psa_119:89-92; Jer_33:25; Act_14:17; Rom_1:20) Every answer to prayer, every deliverance front trouble, every indication of the Divine will in providence, every specific warning and encouragement, is a "sign.

3. Temptations, i.e. tests or trials. "Trial" is a word of wide scope, for God tries us every moment, as well by things little as by things great. Every event in providence contributes to the formation, testing, and discipline of character. Naturally, however, we give the name "trials" to the harder and more severe experiences of life those which most throw us back on our true selves, and reveal or determine character. J.O.

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

Rashi

Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (Rashi)

ולא נתן ה' לכם לב לדעת YET THE LORD HATH NOT GIVEN YOU A HEART TO KNOW — i.e. to understand the loving-kindnesses of the Omnipresent and to cleave unto Him.

עד היום הזה UNTO THIS DAY — I have heard that on the day when Moses gave the Book of the Law to the sons of Levi, as it is written, (Deuteronomy 31:9) “And he gave it to the priests the sons of Levi”, all Israel came before Moses and said to him: Teacher Moses, we, too, stood at Sinai and accepted the Torah, and it was given to us; why, then, do you give the people of your tribe control over it, that they may tomorrow say to us, “Not to you was it given, but to us was it given”? Moses rejoiced at this matter and in reference to this he said to them, (Deuteronomy 27:9) “This day have you become the people [of the Lord thy God]”, meaning, Only this day have I come to understand that you are attached to and have a desire for the Omnipresent.

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 9 words (8 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is maççâh (“trial”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

What does “trial” (maççâh) contribute to the verse as a whole?
How does Deuteronomy 4:34, which shares the word «trial», read alongside this verse?
What does the repetition of “great” (2× in this one verse) do in this verse?
These translations render this verse differently; the difference is in the English rendering, not the original. What questions does that raise?
«רָא֖וּ» is a Qal Perfect verb. How does that grammatical form shape the action described?
Compare how Trapp's Complete Commentary and Geneva Bible (1599) read this verse. Where do they agree or differ?

Things to notice

These translations choose different wording for 9 words in this verse.
“great” occurs 2× in this single verse.
8 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 9 words in this verse.