Deuteronomy 1:28

Summary

The verse quotes the complaint of the Israelites after hearing the report of the scouts: they ask where they can go up, and describe how their fellow Israelites ("brothers") discouraged them by describing the Canaanite people and cities as overwhelmingly great, tall, and fortified, and by mentioning the Anakim seen there.

Key words

'a.Nah ("where?", H0575) — interrogative particle opening the rhetorical question, expressing despair rather than a genuine request for direction.

he.Ma.su ("they have made melt", H4549) — Hiphil (causative) perfect of the root behind "melting"; the causative stem indicates the "brothers" actively caused the heart to melt, i.e., produced fear, and the perfect marks this as a completed action prior to the speaking moment.

le.va.Ve.nu ("our heart", H3824 + H9025) — construct noun with 1st person plural suffix, marked by the object marker 'et (H0853), naming the direct object affected by the melting action.

ga.Dol ("great", H1419A) and ge.do.Lot ("large", H1419A) — the same root appears twice, first as masculine singular describing the "people" ('am, H5971A) and then as feminine plural describing the "cities" ('a.Rim, H5892B), showing grammatical agreement with each noun's gender and number while repeating the same adjectival root for emphasis.

ra.'I.nu ("we saw", H7200G) — Qal perfect, 1st person plural, closing the speech with a completed, witnessed observation ("there," Sham, H8033G) of the Anakim descendants.

What the text says

The verse is structured as a report within a report: verses 1:28 records the Israelites quoting what their scouting "brothers" told them. The opening question 'a.Nah 'a.Nach.nu 'o.Lim ("where are we going up?") uses a participle ('o.Lim, H5927G) rather than a finite verb, giving the sense of an ongoing or imminent action under debate — "where are we [in the state of] going up" — rather than a simple future statement. This nuance of an ongoing/continuing action is often smoothed over in translation as a simple future ("shall we go up" or "can we go").

The causative verb he.Ma.su (Hiphil of the root for melting) is followed by the object marker 'et and le.va.Ve.nu ("our heart"), a construction that literally states the "brothers" caused "our heart" to melt — a idiom for inducing fear or loss of courage. The following infinitive le.'Mor ("saying", H0559) introduces direct speech, which then piles up nominal and adjectival clauses without finite verbs: 'am gaDol vaRam mimeNu ("a people great and lofty, more than us"), 'aRim gedoLot uvetzuRot ("cities large and fortified"), continuing the same style through bashaMayim ("in the heavens") describing the height of the fortifications. This paratactic style (clause after clause without connecting verbs) mirrors an anxious, breathless recounting of frightening reports. The final clause returns to a finite verb, ra'Inu ("we saw"), Qal perfect, anchoring the whole speech in direct eyewitness testimony of the Anakim descendants (beNei 'anaKim, H1121A + H6062).

Differences between versions

The Hebrew word 'a.chei.nu ("our countrymen/brothers", H0251I) is rendered by the LXX as οἱ ἀδελφοὶ ὑμῶν ("your brothers," second-person), and the Vulgate omits the term "brothers" entirely, using nuntii ("messengers") instead. Where the Hebrew has 'am gaDol vaRam ("a people great and lofty"), the LXX reads ἔθνος μέγα καὶ πολὺ καὶ δυνατώτερον ("a nation great and numerous and mightier"), adding a comparative element not explicit in the Hebrew adjectives. The Hebrew bene 'anaKim ("descendants of the Anakim") is rendered by the LXX as υἱοὺς γιγάντων ("sons of giants") and by the Vulgate as filios Enacim ("sons of Enac"), reflecting different strategies for handling the gentilic term 'anaKim (H6062).