יִחְיֶ֣ה (yiḥ·yeh) in Deuteronomy 8:3: Verb - Qal - Imperfect - third person masculine singular
יִחְיֶ֣ה (yiḥ·yeh) in Deuteronomy 8:3
Source Word
The BSB+ row for Deuteronomy 8:3 links the English rendering "live" with יִחְיֶ֣ה, Strong's H2421, and the parsing label V-Qal-Imperf-3ms.
How The Form Affects Interpretation
The form presents living as the principle under discussion in the wilderness lesson, not merely as a reference to one meal.
How To Communicate It
When teaching Deuteronomy 8:3, use this form to show that the verse makes a broad statement about life and dependence before pointing to every word from the Lord.
What Not To Say
- Grammar should serve context, not override it.
- Do not make the imperfect form deny the goodness or necessity of ordinary food.
- Do not detach the life statement from Israel's wilderness testing or from the Lord's word.
What Does The Label Mean?
Hebrew-verb
Verb
Qal
Imperfect
Third
Masculine
Singular
Qal imperfect, third masculine singular
The imperfect form states the life principle in the clause: man does not live by bread alone.
This form names human life in the negative frame before the verse turns to every word from the mouth of the Lord.
What The Form Does In This Verse
The life statement in Deuteronomy 8:3
The wilderness lesson that man does not live by bread alone but by the Lord's word
It states the life principle learned through hunger and manna: human life depends on more than bread.
The imperfect form does not deny the ordinary place of food; the contrast is bread alone versus the Lord's sustaining word.
How Much The Form Matters Here
High: The imperfect carries the life principle at the heart of Deuteronomy 8:3.
Qal imperfect in a broad life statement. states what human life depends on in the verse's contrast. Attached to the man does not live clause. Governed by the wilderness testing and manna explanation. The imperfect works in a generalizing statement and should not be flattened into a single English tense rule.
What does the verse say human life depends on? Not bread alone, but every word from the Lord.
Direct: The form directly supports live in the principle statement.
The imperfect form works in a general life statement here. The grammar does not deny ordinary food; the verse contrasts bread alone with the Lord's word. The wilderness context supplies the theological lesson.
Imperfect means simple future in every passage: Here the imperfect participates in a broad principle statement about life.
How The Interpretation Is Derived
The BSB+ row for Deuteronomy 8:3 links the English rendering "live" with יִחְיֶ֣ה, Strong's H2421, and the parsing label V-Qal-Imperf-3ms.
H2421 can speak of living, staying alive, reviving, or having life, depending on context.
The imperfect form sits inside a broad statement about how human life is sustained.
Israel's hunger and manna taught that life depends on the Lord's word, not on bread alone.
Jesus later quotes this line in the wilderness, making Deuteronomy 8:3 a major canonical witness about dependence on God's word.
Teachers can show that the verb helps the verse speak as a principle of life before the sentence explains what life depends on.
Do not use the imperfect label to deny the ordinary need for food. The verse contrasts bread alone with the Lord's sustaining word.