Deuteronomy 1:7

Summary

Deuteronomy 1:7 records a command to move from the current location and enter the hill country associated with the Amorites, listing the surrounding regions — the plains, hill country, lowlands, south, and coastal areas — up to the land of the Canaanites, Lebanon, and the Euphrates river.

Key words

• pe.Nu ("turn", H6437G) — qal imperative, masculine plural: a direct command addressed to a group, opening the sequence of movement verbs.
• se.'U ("set out", H5265) — second qal imperative, masculine plural, joined to the first by ve ("and", H9002), forming a chain of consecutive commands.
• Vo.'u ("go", H0935G) — third qal imperative, masculine plural, completing the triad of movement verbs before the geographic list begins.
• har ("hill country of", H2022H) — construct form, masculine singular, linking directly to 'e.mo.Ri ("Amorite", H0567) to specify whose hill country is meant.
• 'E.retz ("land of", H0776G) — construct form, feminine singular, introducing a second major geographic unit ("land of the Canaanite") parallel to the earlier har construct.

What the text says

The verse opens with three consecutive qal imperatives — pe.Nu, se.'U, Vo.'u — all masculine plural, addressed to a collective audience. Their stacking without intervening subjects gives the sentence a rapid, cumulative command structure: turn, set out, go. The verb Vo.'u ("go") is followed immediately by a construct chain, har ha-'Emori ("hill country of the Amorite"), establishing the primary destination.

After this, the text shifts to a list of regions joined by repeated ve ("and") and prefixed prepositions ba- / va- ("in the"): ba'Aravah ("in the Arabah"), baHar ("in the hill country"), bashShefelah ("in the Shephelah"), banNegev ("in the Negev"), and bechof hayYam ("on the coast of the sea"). These are strung together paratactically, without subordinating connectors, producing an inventory-style geographic sweep rather than a narrated itinerary. The list culminates in another construct phrase, 'Eretz hakKena'ani ("land of the Canaanite"), followed by halLevanon ("the Lebanon") and the double-construct hannahar haggadol nehar-Perat ("the great river, the river of Euphrates"), where nehar-Perat restates and specifies hannahar haggadol in apposition.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew treats ha'Aravah, hashShefelah, and hanNegev as proper geographic names (Arabah, Shephelah, Negev). The LXX renders these as common nouns describing terrain — πεδίον ("plain") for Shephelah and πρὸς λίβα ("toward the southwest") for Negev — rather than transliterating them as place names. The Vulgate similarly uses descriptive terms — "campestria atque montana et humiliora loca contra meridiem" ("plains and mountains and lower places toward the south") — instead of preserving these as proper nouns, differing from the Hebrew's naming convention for these regions.