Deuteronomy 1:25

Summary

The verse reports the return of the scouts sent to explore the land: they took some fruit, brought it down to the Israelites, gave a report, and declared that the land which Yehovah their God is giving them is good.

Key words

• va-yiqchu ("and they took", H3947G) — qal narrative verb, third person masculine plural, opening the chain of sequential actions with the narrative vav (H9001).
• be-yadam ("in their hand", H3027G) — construct noun with pronominal suffix "their," indicating the fruit was carried physically by the scouts.
• va-yoridu ("and they brought down", H3381) — hiphil (causative) narrative verb: they caused the fruit to descend, matching the geography of returning from higher terrain toward the camp.
• va-yashivu... davar ("and they brought back... a word/report", H7725G + H1697G) — hiphil verb "they caused to return" combined with davar ("word", H1697G), together meaning they delivered a report.
• noten ("is about to give", H5414G) — qal participle, masculine singular, expressing an ongoing or imminent action: "the one giving," describing Yehovah's giving as continuous/present rather than a completed past act.

What the text says

The sentence is built as a chain of four narrative verbs joined by the vav (H9001) that marks sequential storytelling: va-yiqchu ("and they took"), va-yoridu ("and they brought down"), va-yashivu ("and they brought back"), va-yomeru ("and they said"). This chain structure presents the scouts' actions as a single continuous sequence of events rather than isolated facts. The object marker 'et (H0853) before -nu ("us") in otanu marks "us" as the direct object of "they brought back," clarifying that the report was directed at the people, not merely delivered nearby.

The final clause, introduced by the relative particle asher ("which", H0834A), attributes the land's giving to Yehovah (H3068G) Eloheinu ("our God", H0430G construct + suffix). The verb describing this giving, noten (H5414G), is a participle — a verbal form denoting an action in progress or about to happen — rather than a finished past-tense verb. This grammatical choice presents the giving of the land as something happening now or continuously, not as a completed past event.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders noten with δίδωσιν ("gives"), a present-tense finite verb, preserving the ongoing sense of the Hebrew participle. The Vulgate instead uses daturus est ("is about to give" / "will give"), a future periphrastic construction, framing the giving as a future action rather than a present, continuous one. The Hebrew participle noten itself sits grammatically between these two renderings, expressing neither strictly present nor strictly future tense but an unfolding action.