Deuteronomy 1:9

Summary

Moses recalls speaking to the people at a specific past moment, telling them that he was unable to bear the burden of leading them by himself. The verse introduces direct speech through a narrative report.

Key words

• va'omar ("and I said", H0559) — qal narrative form marking sequential past action; opens the reported speech.
• ba'et ("at the time", H6256) — noun with preposition and article, anchoring the statement to a specific occasion ("that time").
• lemor ("saying", H0559) — qal infinitive, standard formula introducing quoted speech.
• ukhal ("I am able", H3201) — qal imperfect, here negated to express incapacity ("I cannot").
• levadi ("alone / of me", H0905H + H9030) — construct noun with 1st person suffix, literally "in my aloneness," stressing solitude.
• set ("to bear", H5375H) — qal infinitive expressing the action Moses cannot sustain, governing the object etkhem ("you", H0853 + H9036).

What the text says

The verse is built as a narrative report introducing direct speech. The sequence va'omar... lemor ("and I said... saying") frames the quotation that follows, a common structure in Biblical Hebrew where a verb of speaking is followed by an infinitive of the same root to mark the beginning of reported words. The phrase ba'et hahi' ("at that time") situates the statement chronologically within the narrated past, using the demonstrative hi' ("she/that", H1931) agreeing with the feminine noun 'et ("time", H6256).

The core of the quotation, lo-ukhal levadi set 'etkhem ("I am not able, by myself, to bear you"), places the negated verb ukhal first, followed by the prepositional phrase levadi ("alone," literally "in my aloneness," from the construct noun bad with a first-person suffix), and only then the infinitive set ("to bear") with its object 'etkhem ("you"). This word order foregrounds the negation and the isolation of the speaker before naming the action itself, a structure that differs from the more direct object-first phrasing found in some translations.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the clause as ou dynēsomai monos pherein hymas ("I will not be able, alone, to carry you"), using a future middle verb (dynēsomai) where the Hebrew has an imperfect (ukhal) that can carry present or future force; the sense is compatible but the LXX explicitly marks futurity. The Vulgate abbreviates sharply, giving only Dixique vobis illo in tempore ("And I said to you at that time") and does not include the following clause about inability to bear the people alone in this segment, differing from the Hebrew's fuller unit that already contains the substance of the complaint.