Deuteronomy 27:9

Summary

Moses and the levitical priests address all Israel, commanding them to be silent and listen. The declaration follows that on this specific day, Israel has become the people of Yehovah their God.

Key words

• y.da.Ber ("he spoke", H1696G) — piel narrative verb, marking the intensive, formal act of speaking that opens the episode.
• has.Ket ("keep silent", H5535) — hiphil imperative, a causative command directed at the audience (literally "cause [yourself] to be silent").
• she.Ma' ("listen", H8085G) — qal imperative, paired with has.Ket to form a double command: silence followed by attentive hearing.
• nih.Yei.ta ("you have become", H1961) — niphal perfect, describing a completed transformation happening from a passive/reflexive stance — the subject undergoes a change of status rather than actively causing it.
• 'e.lo.Hei.kha ("your God", H0430G + H9021) — plural construct noun with second-person masculine suffix, forming the possessive phrase "your God" attached to Yehovah.

What the text says

The verse opens with a compound subject: mo.Sheh ("Moses", H4872) together with ha.ko.ha.Nim ha.l.vi.Yim ("the priests, the Levites", H3548 + H3881), joined by the conjunction ve (H9002). This subject governs the single verb y.da.Ber (H1696G), indicating a shared, unified act of speaking directed 'el kol Yis.ra.'El ("to all Israel", H0413 + H3605 + H3478). The construct phrase kol Yis.ra.'El uses H3605 in construct state, meaning literally "all of Israel," emphasizing totality of the audience.

The speech itself opens with two paired imperatives, has.Ket (H5535, hiphil) and she.Ma' (H8085G, qal), both second-person masculine singular even though addressed to the collective "Israel" — a grammatical feature common in Hebrew where a plural nation is addressed as one singular entity. The hiphil form of has.Ket carries a causative nuance not fully rendered in translation: it suggests bringing oneself to silence rather than a simple state of being quiet.

The core declaration uses nih.Yei.ta (H1961, niphal perfect), "you have become," describing a status change that has already been completed by the time of speaking. The niphal (passive/reflexive) stem here presents Israel's becoming a people as a state that came about rather than an action Israel performed on itself. This "becoming" is qualified by le.'Am ("into a people", H5971A) and then specified as belonging la.Yah.weh 'e.lo.Hei.kha — "to Yehovah your God" (H3068G + H0430G + H9021), using the construct/possessive structure to link the divine name with the second-person suffix.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the divine name as Τυρίῳ ("Tyrian" or a similarly obscure term in this Swete edition) where the Hebrew has la.Yah.weh ("to Yehovah", H3068G) — a notable divergence in how the divine name is transmitted in this Greek witness, differing from the standard κύριος found in many LXX manuscripts. The Vulgate uses "Domini Dei tui" ("of the Lord your God"), consistent with the Hebrew construct chain but employing the Latin convention "Dominus" for the tetragrammaton rather than a transliteration.