Deuteronomy 10:11

Summary

Yehovah instructs Moses to get up and continue leading the people on their journey, so that they may enter and take possession of the land promised by oath to their ancestors. The verse combines a divine command with a stated purpose: entry and possession of the land tied to an earlier oath.

Key words

• qum ("arise", H6965B) — qal imperative, a command to begin an action, paired immediately with a second imperative.
• lekh ("go", H1980G) — qal imperative; together with qum it forms a doubled command emphasizing immediate movement ("get up, go").
• yavo'u ("they may go/enter", H0935G) — qal imperfect with prefixed vav, expressing purpose or result following the imperatives ("so that they may enter").
• yirshu ("they may take possession of", H3423H) — qal imperfect with vav, parallel to yavo'u, continuing the purpose clause ("and take possession").
• nishba'ti ("I swore", H7650) — niphal perfect, first person; the niphal stem here functions with active sense ("I swore"), marking a completed prior action that grounds the present command.

What the text says

The verse opens with the narrative formula va-yomer Yehovah elai ("and Yehovah said to me"), placing the command in direct divine speech to Moses. The core instruction is built from two consecutive qal imperatives, qum ("arise") and lekh ("go"), which in Hebrew narrative often function as a single emphatic directive rather than two separate actions — "get up and go" reinforcing urgency. This is followed by the phrase le-massa' li-fnei ha-'am ("for journeying before the people"), specifying the manner of the going: Moses is to proceed ahead of the people during their travel.

The purpose of this movement is then expressed through two verbs in the imperfect with prefixed vav, ve-yavo'u ("and let them enter") and ve-yirshu ("and let them possess"), a common Hebrew construction where a command is followed by vav-imperfect forms indicating consequence or intended result. The object of possession, ha-'aretz ("the land", H0776G), is introduced with the direct object marker 'et, and defined by a relative clause: 'asher nishba'ti la-avotam ("which I swore to their fathers"). The verb nishba'ti is niphal in form but carries active meaning, "I swore," a feature typical of this root when referring to an oath. The clause ends with the infinitive latet lahem ("to give it to them"), stating the content of the sworn promise.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew doubled imperative qum lekh ("arise, go") appears in the LXX as two distinct commands, βάδιζε ("proceed") and ἄπαρον ("depart"), reflecting the same double-command structure but choosing different verbs than a literal "arise/go." The Vulgate condenses this into a single imperative, Vade ("go"), followed by præcede populum ("go before the people"), merging the phrase "for journeying before the people" directly into the command rather than treating it as a separate purpose expression. The Greek renders the purpose verbs yavo'u and yirshu as imperatives (εἰσπορευέσθωσαν, κληρονομείτωσαν, "let them enter," "let them inherit") rather than as Hebrew vav-imperfect forms, shifting the grammatical mood of the purpose clause from consequential to directly commanded.