Sacerdos vocem divam audit.

Because sacerdos is in the nominative case, which is the case normally used for the subject.

In this sentence:

• sacerdos = the priest / the priestess
• vocem divam = the thing being heard
• audit = he/she hears

So sacerdos is the one doing the action.

A useful extra point: sacerdos is a third-declension noun, so its nominative singular does not have a very obvious ending like -a or -us.

Because vocem is the accusative singular form of vox.

• vox = voice when it is the subject
• vocem = voice when it is the direct object

Since the voice is what the priest hears, Latin puts vox into the accusative:

• vox = voice
• vocem = voice as the object

So Sacerdos vocem divam audit means the priest hears the divine voice, and vocem shows that voice is receiving the action.

Because it agrees with vocem.

Latin adjectives must agree with the nouns they describe in:

• gender
• number
• case

Here:

• vocem is feminine
• singular
• accusative

So the adjective describing it must also be feminine singular accusative:

• diva = divine / goddess-like in a feminine nominative form
• divam = feminine accusative singular

That is why Latin uses divam, not divus, diva, or divinum.

In this sentence, it is most naturally understood as an adjective meaning divine, modifying vocem.

So:

• vocem divam = the divine voice

Although diva/divam can also be a noun meaning goddess, that would not fit this sentence as smoothly. If divam were a noun here, you would not normally read vocem divam as one neat phrase meaning the divine voice.

So for a learner, the best reading is:

• vocem = voice
• divam = divine

Because Latin word order is much more flexible than English word order.

In English, we usually say:

• the divine voice

But Latin can say:

• divam vocem
• vocem divam

Both can mean the same thing.

Putting the adjective after the noun is very common in Latin. So vocem divam is perfectly normal Latin word order.

Because Latin often places the verb near the end of the sentence.

So this order is very natural:

• Sacerdos = subject
• vocem divam = object
• audit = verb

English usually depends heavily on word order, but Latin depends more on case endings. That means Latin can move words around more freely without changing the basic meaning.

Audit is:

• third person singular
• present tense
• active voice
• from the verb audire = to hear

So audit means:

• he hears
• she hears
• it hears

Since the subject is sacerdos, the meaning is the priest hears or the priestess hears.

Because Classical Latin has no articles.

English distinguishes between:

• a priest
• the priest

Latin usually just says:

• sacerdos

The exact English translation depends on context. So sacerdos could be translated as:

• a priest
• the priest
• a priestess
• the priestess

The same is true for vocem divam:

• a divine voice
• the divine voice

Context tells you which English article sounds best.

Yes. Sacerdos can refer to either a male or a female religious official.

So by itself, sacerdos does not force the translation to be:

• only priest or
• only priestess

You often need context to know which is intended. That is why audit also does not help much here, since he hears and she hears are both possible translations of audit.

We know because divam agrees with vocem in case, number, and gender:

• vocem = feminine singular accusative
• divam = feminine singular accusative

That matching strongly suggests that divam describes vocem.

So the sentence divides naturally like this:

• Sacerdos = subject
• vocem divam = direct object phrase
• audit = verb

Yes, often they could.

For example, Latin could also say:

• Sacerdos divam vocem audit
• Vocem divam sacerdos audit
• Audit sacerdos vocem divam

These can all mean roughly the same thing: The priest hears the divine voice.

However, different word orders can add different emphasis or style. The endings, not the position alone, tell you the grammatical roles.

The dictionary forms are:

• sacerdos, sacerdotis = priest / priestess
• vox, vocis = voice
• divus, diva, divum = divine
• audio, audire, audivi, auditum = hear

This is useful because the forms in the sentence are not always the same as the dictionary entry:

• vocem comes from vox
• divam comes from diva as the feminine form of the adjective
• audit comes from audire / audio