Deuteronomy 4:26

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that you shall soon utterly perish from off the land whereunto you go over the Jordan to possess it; you shall not prolong your days on it, but shall utterly be destroyed.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Download a study sheet

One document with this verse’s original text, its word-by-word gloss line, the meaning frame, cross-references with their text, attributed commentary, and full source and license credits — printable, and it pastes into notes with its structure intact.

This verse Autodidact and up

Study sheet (.html) Plain text (.txt)

A passage Seminary Student

Up to 50 verses in one chapter. A passage sheet keeps up to 6 commentary sources and 12 cross-references per verse, in the order this page ranks them, and says so on the sheet whenever that leaves anything out. Ask for a single verse and you get the Autodidact verse sheet above.

Everything on this page stays free to read, with no account — the sheet is a download of what is already on screen, not access to it.

Want to remove ads? Support Godless Engineer

Word by word

More ways to search: Search by grammar → Find every occurrence → Compare this word →

Practice this passage: Drill this verse → Learn its vocabulary →

מַהֵר֒

mahêr

H4118

“swift”

Verb, Piel, Infinitive Absolute

Appears 18× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Exodus 32:8

Full BDB Definition

Origin: from H4116

TWOT: 1152a , 1152b

hurrying, speedy, swift, hastening (adjective) - quickly, speedily (adverb)

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 →

27: words
18: distinct lemmas
Pentateuch: section

Notable vocabulary

The rarest word here is מַהֵר֒ swift H4118 — appearing just 18 times in the whole Hebrew Bible.

Shared distinctive vocabulary

מַהֵר֒ swift H4118 occurs in 17 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

9 verbs
6 nouns
1 pronoun
3 prepositions
2 conjunctions
1 adverb
5 particles

Verb forms

הַעִידֹתִי֩ Hiphil · Perfect
אָבֹ֣ד Qal · Infinitive Absolute
תֹּאבֵדוּן֮ Qal · Imperfect
מַהֵר֒ Piel · Infinitive Absolute
עֹבְרִ֧ים Qal · Participle Active
לְרִשְׁתָּ֑הּ Qal · Infinitive Construct
תַאֲרִיכֻ֤ן Hiphil · Imperfect
הִשָּׁמֵ֖ד Niphal · Infinitive Absolute
תִּשָּׁמֵדֽוּן Niphal · Imperfect

Repetition

Words recur within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:

הַיּ֜וֹם day H3117 ×2
הָאָ֗רֶץ land H776 ×2
אָבֹ֣ד to perish H6 ×2
מֵעַ֣ל upon H5921 ×2
הִשָּׁמֵ֖ד to destroy H8045 ×2
כִּֽי that H3588 ×2

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 43 words from the Hebrew and 44 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 27 Hebrew tokens and 33 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 4:26 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Deuteronomy 32:1 Give ear, you heavens, and I will speak; Let the earth hear the words of my mouth.
Micah 6:2 Hear, you mountains, Yahweh's controversy, And you enduring foundations of the earth; For Yahweh has a controversy with his people, And he will contend with Israel.
Jeremiah 22:29 O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of Yahweh.
Deuteronomy 30:18–19 I denounce to you this day, that you shall surely perish; you shall not prolong your days in the land, where you pass over the Jordan to go in to possess it.
Isaiah 1:2 Hear, heavens, And listen, earth; for Yahweh has spoken: I have nourished and brought up children, And they have rebelled against me.
Jeremiah 2:12 Be astonished, you heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid, be you very desolate, says Yahweh.
Ezekiel 36:4 therefore, you mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord Yahweh: Thus says the Lord Yahweh to the mountains and to the hills, to the watercourses and to the valleys, to the desolate wastes and to the cities that are forsaken, which are become a prey and derision to the residue of the nations that are round about;
Leviticus 18:28 that the land not vomit you out also, when you defile it, as it vomited out the nation that was before you.

Joshua 23:16 When you disobey the covenant of Yahweh your God, which he commanded you, and go and serve other gods, and bow down yourselves to them; then will the anger of Yahweh be kindled against you, and you shall perish quickly from off the good land which he has given to you.
Jeremiah 44:22 so that Yahweh could no longer bear, because of the evil of your doings, and because of the abominations which you have committed; therefore is your land become a desolation, and an astonishment, and a curse, without inhabitant, as it is this day.
Leviticus 26:31–35 I will lay your cities waste, and will bring your sanctuaries to desolation, and I will not take delight in the sweet fragrence of your offerings.
Deuteronomy 29:28 and Yahweh rooted them out of their land in anger, and in wrath, and in great indignation, and cast them into another land, as at this day.
Deuteronomy 31:28 Assemble to me all the elders of your tribes, and your officers, that I may speak these words in their ears, and call heaven and earth to witness against them.
Isaiah 6:11 Then I said, "Lord, how long?" He answered, "Until cities are waste without inhabitant, And houses without man, And the land becomes utterly waste,
Jeremiah 6:19 Hear, earth: behold, I will bring evil on this people, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not listened to my words; and as for my law, they have rejected it.
Luke 21:24 They will fall by the edge of the sword, and will be led captive into all the nations. Jerusalem will be trampled down by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

Isaiah 24:1–3 Behold, Yahweh makes the earth empty, and makes it waste, and turns it upside down, and scatters abroad the inhabitants of it.
Ezekiel 33:28 I will make the land a desolation and an astonishment; and the pride of her power shall cease; and the mountains of Israel shall be desolate, so that none shall pass through.
Micah 1:2 Hear, you peoples, all of you. Listen, O earth, and all that is therein: And let the Lord Yahweh be witness against you, The Lord from his holy temple.

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 4:26 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

הַעִידֹתִי֩ בָכֶ֨ם הַיּ֜וֹם אֶת הַשָּׁמַ֣יִם וְאֶת הָאָ֗רֶץ כִּֽי אָבֹ֣ד תֹּאבֵדוּן֮ מַהֵר֒ מֵעַ֣ל הָאָ֔רֶץ אֲשֶׁ֨ר אַתֶּ֜ם עֹבְרִ֧ים אֶת הַיַּרְדֵּ֛ן שָׁ֖מָּה לְרִשְׁתָּ֑הּ לֹֽא תַאֲרִיכֻ֤ן יָמִים֙ עָלֶ֔יהָ כִּ֥י הִשָּׁמֵ֖ד תִּשָּׁמֵדֽוּן

I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that you shall soon utterly perish from off the land whereunto you go over the Jordan to possess it; you shall not prolong your days on it, but shall utterly be destroyed.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Deuteronomy 4:26 Septuagint · lemma form

διαμαρτύρομαι σύ σήμερον ὁ τε οὐρανός καί ὁ γῆ ὅτι ἀπώλεια ἀποὀλλύω ἀπό ὁ γῆ εἰς ὅς σύ διαβαίνω ὁ ἰορδάνης ἐκεῖ κληρονομέω αὐτός οὐ πολυχρονίζω ἡμέρα ἐπί αὐτός ἀλλά ἤ ἐκτριβή ἐκτρίβω

I call heaven and earth this day to witness against you, that you⌃ shall surely perish from off the land, into which you⌃ go across Jordan to inherit it there; you⌃ shall not prolong your days upon it, but shall be utterly cut off.

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)

אַסְהֵדִית בְּכוֹן יוֹמָא דֵין יָת שְׁמַיָא וְיָת אַרְעָא אֲרֵי מֵיבַד תֵּיבְדוּן בִּפְרִיעַ מֵעַל אַרְעָא דִי אַתּוּן עָבְרִין יָת יַרְדְנָא לְתַמָן לְמֵירְתַהּ לָא תוֹרְכוּן יוֹמִין עֲלַהּ אֲרֵי אִשְׁתְּצָאָה תִּשְׁתֵּצוּן

(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)

אַסְהֵידִית בְּכוֹן יוֹמָא דֵין סַהֲדִין קַיְימִין יַת שְׁמַיָא וְיַת אַרְעָא אֲרוּם מֵיבַד תּוֹבְדוּן בְּסַרְהוּבַיָא מֵעִילַוֵי אַרְעָא דְאַתּוּן עָבְרִין יַת יוֹרְדְּנָא תַמָּן לְמֵירְתָהּ לָא תוֹרְכוּן יוֹמִין עֲלָהּ אֲרוּם מִשְׁתֵּצְיָא תִשְׁתֵּיצוּן

I attest against you this day the sworn witnesses of the heavens and the earth, that perishing you will perish swiftly from the land to possess which you pass the Jordan: you will not lengthen out days upon it, but will be utterly destroyed.

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 4:26 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 →

Tyndale Open Study Notes

Tyndale Open Resources

4:26 Heaven and earth would be witnesses against Israel if the people were disloyal to the Lord. In a covenant partnership, the parties to the agreement were held accountable to the oaths of loyalty and commitment they made to each other in the presence of witnesses (Isa 1:2-7; Mic 6:1-8). In Deuteronomy, the natural creation plays that role of witness (see Deut also 30:19).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Geneva Bible (1599)

Geneva Bible translators

Though men would absolve you, yet the insensible creatures shall be witnesses of your disobedience.

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

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown

I call heaven and earth to witness against you--This solemn form of adjuration has been common in special circumstances among all people. It is used here figuratively, or as in other parts of Scripture where inanimate objects are called up as witnesses (Deu 32:1; Isa 1:2).

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 26. I call heaven and earth to witness against you] A most solemn method of adjuration, in use among all nations in the world. So Virgil, AEn., lib. xii., ver. 176, c.

Tum pius AEneas stricto sic ense precatur:

Esto nunc Sol testis et haec mihi terra vocanti -

Fontesque fluviosque voco, quaeque aetheris alti

Relllgio, et quae caeruleo sunt numina ponto, &c.

"Then the great Trojan prince unsheathed his sword,

And thus, with lifted hands, the gods adored:

Thou land for which I wage this war, and thou

Great source of day, be witness to my vow! -

Almighty king of heaven and queen of air,

Propitious now and reconciled by prayer, -

Ye springs, ye floods, ye various powers who lie

Beneath the deep, or tread the golden sky, -

HEAR and ATTEST!" PITT.

God and man being called upon to bear testimony to the truth of what was spoken, that if there was any flaw or insincerity, it might be detected and if any crime, it might not go unpunished. Such appeals to God, for such purposes, show at once both the origin and use of oaths. See Clarke on De 6:13.

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

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne

26. I call heaven and earth to witness against you] So Deu_30:19; Deu_31:28. Berth. points out that the older style is earth and heaven. In controversy between God and Israel nature is introduced as the executioner of His judgements, or as suffering these with man; or as illustrating the steady laws or principles on which God acts in the moral sphere; or as here (cp. Mic_6:1 ff.) as witnessing against man. Enduring, the heavens and earth, especially the mountains, have seen all the relations between God and man, and when His evils come will be able to testify that God had warned the people. But differently in Deu_32:1, q.v.

ye shall soon utterly perish from off the land] Perish that is as a nation, Deu_7:4, Deu_11:17, Deu_28:20 and the deuteronomic Jos_23:16. Soon, Deu_7:4; Deu_7:22, Deu_9:3; Deu_9:12; Deu_9:16, Deu_28:20.

whereunto ye go over Jordan to possess it] characteristic of the Pl. passages. See Introd. and on Deu_4:5; Deu_4:14 and Deu_6:1.

ye shall not prolong your days] Again, as a nation. In the Hex. only here and Deu_4:40, Deu_5:33, Deu_11:9, Deu_17:20, Deu_22:7, Deu_30:18, Deu_32:47; and passive, Deu_5:16, Deu_6:2, Deu_25:15. Cp. E, Jos_24:31.

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

I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day,.... Should they be guilty of such a sin, since they were so strongly and publicly cautioned against it; and even the heaven and the earth were called upon as witnesses of the law being set before them, which so expressly forbids it, Deu 30:19.

that ye shall soon utterly perish from off the land whereunto you go over Jordan to possess it; though they were now about to go over Jordan and inherit the land of Canaan, yet they would not enjoy it long, but be taken and carried captive out of it; as the ten tribes were by Shalmaneser king of Assyria, and the two tribes by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and both for their idolatry and other crimes.

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

And earth, or all their rational inhabitants. (St. Jerome and St. Basil in Isa. i. 2.) Moses conjures the Israelites, by all that is most sacred, to continue faithful. He speaks with the greatest earnestness, as he does again, chap. xxxii. 1. (Calmet) --- He makes use of a sort of oath, by the creatures, in which God shines forth. (Menochius) --- Destroy you. He will take from you that delightful country, though he will save a remnant of you out of the captivity at Babylon, and in the latter days, ver. 31. The Jews, in the promised land, were almost always prone to idolatry; till God severely chastised them by the hands of the Babylonians. Since that time, few of them have willingly yielded to the worship of idols, though some have fallen by compulsion, as we read, Daniel iii., and 1 Machabees i. 53., and ii. 16. Jeremias (v. 19) foretold that this would be the case. As you have forsaken me and served a strange god in your own land, so shall you serve strangers in a land that is not your own. (Haydock)

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).

Matthew Poole's English Annotations

Heaven and earth; either,

1. Figuratively, i.e. God, and angels, and men. Or rather,

2. Properly; it being usual in Scripture to call in the senseless creatures as witnesses in such cases, as Deu 32:1; Isa 1:2; Jer 2:12.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Whedon's Commentary on the Bible

Daniel D. Whedon

26. I call heaven and earth to witness — Heaven and earth are personified in this solemn form of adjuration, as in Isa_1:2, “Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth.” Comp. also Deu_32:1, of this book.

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

I call heaven and earth to witness. Moses speaks in the name of the Lord of all, and so calls to witness the whole created universe to attest his words; the heavens and earth are witnesses for God, and when evil comes on those who transgress his Law, they declare his righteousness, (Psa_50:4, Psa_50:6) in that what has befallen the sinner is only what was announced beforehand as the penalty of transgression. Soon; hastily (rhem), without delay. (cf. Deu_7:4, 22 "at once," Authorized Vers.; 9:3 "quickly", 12, 16) Prolong days; usually equal to have a long life; (cf. Deu_5:16 Deu_6:2 Deu_11:9 Deu_17:20, etc.) here it means "continue long to occupy." Only as they continued faithful to Jehovah could they continue as a people to possess the land; severed from him, they lost their title to occupy Canaan, and ceased to be his special people; as a nation they would be destroyed by being scattered among other nations.

Lev_26:33, etc., and Deu_28:64, it is evident that the author had in view "all the dispersions which would come upon the rebellious nation in future times, even down to the dispersion under the Romans, which continues still; so that Moses contemplated the punishment in its fullest extent" (Keil).

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)

העידתי בכם I CALL AS WITNESSES AGAINST YOU [THE HEAVENS AND THE EARTH] — Behold I summon them to be witnesses that I have warned you.

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 27 words (18 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is mahêr (“swift”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

The word mahêr carries the sense “swift.” How does it shape the verse?
How does Exodus 32:8, which shares the word «swift», read alongside this verse?
What does the repetition of “day” (2× in this one verse) do in this verse?
The translations on this page render this verse differently — a whole-verse word diff, not a word-by-word alignment. What might account for the different wordings?
«הַעִידֹתִי֩» is a Hiphil Perfect verb. How does that grammatical form shape the action described?
Compare how Tyndale Open Study Notes and Geneva Bible (1599) read this verse. Where do they agree or differ?

Things to notice

This verse counts 27 Hebrew ↔ 33 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 19 words in this verse.
“day” occurs 2× in this single verse.
18 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 27 words in this verse.