Deuteronomy 1:42

Summary

The verse records Yehovah's direct reply to Moses, instructing him to relay a double prohibition to the people: they are not to go up (into battle) and not to fight, because Yehovah's presence will not be among them. The consequence of ignoring this is stated as being struck down before their enemies.

Key words

• tilLachamu ("you must fight", H3898A) — niphal imperfect, giving the verb a reflexive/reciprocal sense ("engage each other in fighting") rather than a simple active "fight".
• 'eiNeni ("I am not", H0369) — a negative existential particle in construct form carrying the 1st-person suffix "I", producing the idiom "there is no I" = "I am not [present]".
• qirbeKhem ("your midst", H7130G) — masculine singular construct noun with 2nd-person plural suffix, forming the phrase "in the midst of you" that specifies the location of the withdrawn presence.
• tinnaGefu ("you will be struck/defeated", H5062) — niphal imperfect, marking the verb as passive: the subject receives the action of being struck rather than performing it.
• lifNei ("before", H6440G) — plural construct noun functioning as a compound preposition, literally "to the face of," introducing "your enemies."

What the text says

The verse opens with the standard narrative chain va-yoMer ("and he said", H0559) followed by the subject Yehovah (H3068) and the object 'elai ("to me", H0413+suffix), establishing that this is direct divine speech reported by Moses. The imperative 'eMor ("say", H0559) introduces a quoted command Moses must deliver, marked by lahem ("to them").

The prohibition itself is built from two parallel negated imperfects: lo ta'aLu ("you must not go up", H5927G) and ve-lo tilLachamu ("and you must not fight", H3898A). The second verb's niphal form gives it a mutual or reciprocal nuance not visible in a plain English "fight."

The causal clause ki 'eiNeni beqirbeKhem uses the negative-existential construct 'eiNeni combined with the locative qirbeKhem, producing a spatial statement: Yehovah's presence is absent "in the midst of" the people, rather than a general statement of absence or accompaniment. The final clause ve-lo tinnaGefu lifNei 'oyeveiKhem uses a passive verb (niphal) to describe the people as recipients of a defeat "before the face of" their enemies, a construct phrase built from lifNei (H6440G) and 'oyeVei (H0341), itself a participle in construct form ("the ones being hostile to you").

Differences between versions

The Hebrew beqirbeKhem ("in your midst") is rendered by the LXX as μεθ’ ὑμῶν ("with you"), a shift from a spatial "within" to an accompanying "with." The Vulgate's ne cadatis ("lest you fall") diverges from the Hebrew passive tinnaGefu ("you will be struck/defeated"), using a verb of falling rather than one describing being struck down by an external force. The BSB compresses the two separate imperfects ta'aLu and tilLachamu into a single infinitive phrase ("not to go up and fight"), while the SBLIBRE preserves the double negated-verb structure closer to the Hebrew syntax.