Deuteronomy 1:2

Summary

The verse is a parenthetical geographical note stating the distance, expressed in days of travel, between Horeb and Kadesh Barnea, specifying that the route passes by way of Mount Seir. It contains no verb — it is a nominal (verbless) clause reporting a fact about travel time.

Key words

• 'aChad ("one [of]", H0259) — construct form of "one," combined with the next word to form the number "eleven."
• 'aSar ("ten", H6240) — paired with 'achad in construct sequence to produce the compound numeral "eleven."
• yom ("day", H3117G) — grammatically singular, yet functioning here to express a span of multiple days ("eleven day[s]"), a common Hebrew idiom where a singular noun follows a numeral.
• Derekh ("way of", H1870K) — construct noun linking the journey to its route, "way of Mount Seir."
• har ("mountain of", H2022G) — construct form linking "mountain" to the place name Seir.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence has no finite verb; it simply juxtaposes a numeral phrase, 'achad 'asar yom ("eleven day[s]"), with a chain of place names connected by prepositions and construct nouns. The construct chain 'achad 'asar ("one-ten," i.e., "eleven") governs yom ("day"), which remains singular in form even though the sense is plural — a standard feature of Hebrew numerals above ten, where the counted noun often stays in the singular.

The route is marked by three prepositional/construct elements: me-Chorev ("from Horeb," H9006 + H2722), derekh har-Se'ir ("by the way of Mount Seir," a construct chain linking H1870K, H2022G, H8165G), and 'ad Qadesh Barnea' ("to Kadesh Barnea," H5704 + H6947). The clause thus moves spatially from a starting point (Horeb), through an intermediate route marker (Mount Seir), to a destination (Kadesh Barnea), all without any verb of motion — the journey and its duration are implied entirely by the nominal construction itself.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the preposition before "Horeb" as ἐν ("in"), where the Hebrew me- (H9006) means "from." The Vulgate’s de Horeb ("from Horeb") and the Hebrew agree in directionality, while the LXX’s ἐν Χωρήβ suggests location rather than point of departure. Additionally, the LXX uses ἐπ’ ὄρος Σηείρ ("upon/toward Mount Seir") for the Hebrew construct derekh har-Se'ir ("way of Mount Seir"), shifting from a route description to a directional one. The Vulgate’s per viam montis Seir ("by the way of Mount Seir") mirrors the Hebrew construct structure most closely among the versions given.