Deuteronomy 1:11

Summary

Deuteronomy 1:11 is a benedictory wish spoken about the people: that Yehovah ("Yehovah", H3068), the God of their ancestors, increase their numbers a thousandfold and bless them, in keeping with what he had spoken to them. The verse is framed as two parallel jussive (wish-form) clauses joined by "and."

Key words

• yosef ("may he add", H3254H) — Hiphil (causative) jussive: expresses a wish that God cause an increase, not a simple statement of fact.
• 'elef ("a thousand", H0505G) — construct noun governing pe'amim ("times", H6471), forming the idiom "a thousand times."
• vi-yvarekh ("and may he bless", H1288) — Piel (intensive) imperfect with prefixed vav (H9002), continuing the jussive sense of the first verb: a second, parallel wish.
• ka'asher ("as", H0834D) — relative particle introducing a comparison clause tied to what follows.
• dibber ("he spoke", H1696I) — Piel perfect, marking a completed past action: the "speaking" referred to is presented as already accomplished before this verse.

What the text says

The verse opens with the divine name and its construct chain 'elohei 'avoteikhem ("God of your fathers", H0430G + H0001G), identifying the subject of the wish. The main verb yosef is a Hiphil jussive, a grammatical form used for expressing a wish or indirect command ("may he add"), not a future indicative. Its object is marked by 'aleikhem ("to you", built from H5921A + suffix), and the comparison kakhem 'elef pe'amim ("like you, a thousand times") describes the scale of the increase relative to their present number.

The second clause, vi-yvarekh 'etkhem, uses the conjunction vav attached to another jussive-toned verb (Piel imperfect functioning as continuation of the wish), meaning "and may he bless you." The direct object marker 'et (H0853) is untranslatable but marks khem ("you") as the object of the blessing.

The final clause, ka'asher dibber lakhem ("as he spoke to you"), uses the Piel perfect dibber, indicating a completed act of speaking in the past, referenced here as the standard by which the blessing is measured.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the "thousand times" comparison as ὡς ἐστὲ χιλιοπλασίως ("as you are, a thousandfold"), phrasing it as a state rather than the Hebrew's comparative construct kakhem 'elef pe'amim. The Vulgate renders it differently again: addat ad hunc numerum multa millia ("may he add to this number many thousands"), which shifts the "thousand times" idiom into "many thousands added to the current number." Several modern versions (BSB, RV1909, SBLIBRE) render dibber ("he spoke") as "promised," an interpretive gloss not explicit in the bare verb form itself.