לֵאמֹ֗ר (lê·mōr) in Deuteronomy 30:12: Preposition-l | Verb - Qal - Infinitive construct
לֵאמֹ֗ר (lê·mōr) in Deuteronomy 30:12
Source Word
Deuteronomy 30:12 row 4 aligns the lamed-prefixed H559 infinitive with that you should need to ask before the question about ascending to heaven.
How The Form Affects Interpretation
That you should need to ask marks the imagined objection the verse rejects: no heavenly expedition is needed to obtain the word for obedience. The lamed infinitive literally introduces saying, while the BSB supplies need to ask and you to make the hypothetical quotation natural in English.
How To Communicate It
Treat the infinitive as the doorway into a hypothetical quotation, identify heaven as the imagined barrier, and let verse 14 answer the objection with the word's nearness.
What Not To Say
- Grammatical form should serve context, not override it.
- Do not use the phrase against sincere study or make one infinitive carry the entire contrast between remoteness and obedience.
- The English need is interpretive expansion from the rhetorical setting, not a separate feature encoded in the infinitive.
- The form does not command Israel to ask the question, encode the ascent, or teach that every divine mystery is immediately accessible.
What Does The Label Mean?
Hebrew-verb
Verb
Preposition-l | Verb - Qal - Infinitive construct
Qal
Inf
Not applicable
Not applicable
Not applicable
Not applicable
Lamed preposition
None
The lamed-prefixed Qal infinitive construct introduces the hypothetical words someone might say about a command imagined to be in heaven. The BSB expands the compact saying form as that you should need to ask; the token itself has no second-person suffix.
The infinitive opens the imagined question about who must ascend, obtain the word, and proclaim it for Israel.
What The Form Does In This Verse
The denial that the command is inaccessible in heaven and requires an ascent to retrieve it
Moses' assurance that the covenant word is neither too difficult nor too remote but near enough to hear and obey
The infinitive opens the imagined question about who must ascend, obtain the word, and proclaim it for Israel.
The form does not command Israel to ask the question, encode the ascent, or teach that every divine mystery is immediately accessible.
How Much The Form Matters Here
High: The form introduces a memorable but rejected heavenly quest so the text can emphasize that obedience does not depend on retrieving a distant word.
The lamed-prefixed Qal infinitive construct introduces the hypothetical words someone might say about a command imagined to be in heaven. The BSB expands the compact saying form as that you should need to ask; the token itself has no second-person suffix.. The infinitive opens the imagined question about who must ascend, obtain the word, and proclaim it for Israel.. Attached to the denial that the command is inaccessible in heaven and requires an ascent to retrieve it. Governed by Moses' assurance that the covenant word is neither too difficult nor too remote but near enough to hear and obey. The form does not command Israel to ask the question, encode the ascent, or teach that every divine mystery is immediately accessible.
Why does Deuteronomy 30:12 imagine someone asking who will ascend to heaven? The question represents an obstacle Moses denies, because the commanded word is already near enough for Israel to hear and obey.
Direct: The lamed infinitive literally introduces saying, while the BSB supplies need to ask and you to make the hypothetical quotation natural in English.
The English need is interpretive expansion from the rhetorical setting, not a separate feature encoded in the infinitive. The verse rejects an inaccessible-heaven scenario; it does not condemn inquiry or erase the need to learn what the command says.
The infinitive credited with second-person marking or with the ascent and proclamation actions expressed later in the quotation: Do not use the phrase against sincere study or make one infinitive carry the entire contrast between remoteness and obedience. need to ask treated as a ban on honest questions rather than the rejected claim that the command must be retrieved from heaven: Keep "that you should need to ask" connected to לֵאמֹ֗ר, row 4, and the full Deuteronomy 30:12 clause.
How The Interpretation Is Derived
Deuteronomy 30:12 row 4 aligns the lamed-prefixed H559 infinitive with that you should need to ask before the question about ascending to heaven.
This row 4 H559 witness introduces the heaven question, distinct from the parallel sea-crossing question in the next verse.
The lamed-prefixed Qal infinitive construct introduces the hypothetical words someone might say about a command imagined to be in heaven. The BSB expands the compact saying form as that you should need to ask; the token itself has no second-person suffix.
Deuteronomy 30:11-14 says the commanded word is not hidden in heaven or beyond reach; it is near Israel in mouth and heart so that it may be obeyed.
The saying belongs to Moses' insistence on the nearness of the covenant command; later canonical use should be read from its own full argument as well.
Treat the infinitive as the doorway into a hypothetical quotation, identify heaven as the imagined barrier, and let verse 14 answer the objection with the word's nearness.
Do not use the phrase against sincere study or make one infinitive carry the entire contrast between remoteness and obedience.