Deuteronomy 11:10

כִּי הָאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר אַתָּה בָא־שָׁמָּה לְרִשְׁתָּהּ לֹא כְאֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם הִוא אֲשֶׁר יְצָאתֶם מִשָּׁם אֲשֶׁר תִּזְרַע אֶֽת־זַרְעֲךָ וְהִשְׁקִיתָ בְרַגְלְךָ כְּגַן הַיָּרָֽק׃

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✦ The same verse in five languages

Hebrew

כִּ֣י הָאָ֗רֶץ אֲשֶׁ֨ר אַתָּ֤ה בָא־שָׁ֙מָּה֙ לְרִשְׁתָּ֔הּ לֹ֣א כְאֶ֤רֶץ מִצְרַ֙יִם֙ הִ֔וא אֲשֶׁ֥ר יְצָאתֶ֖ם מִשָּׁ֑ם אֲשֶׁ֤ר תִּזְרַע֙ אֶֽת־זַרְעֲךָ֔ וְהִשְׁקִ֥יתָ בְרַגְלְךָ֖ כְּגַ֥ן הַיָּרָֽק׃

Greek (Septuagint)

ἔστιν γὰρ ἡ γῆ εἰς ἢν εἰσπορεύῃ ἐκεῖ κληρονομῆσαι οὐ. τήν, οὐχ ὥσπερ γῆ Αἰγύπτου ἐστίν, ὅθεν ἐκπεπόρευσθε ἐκεῖθεν, ὅταν σπείρωσιν τὸν σπόρον καὶ ποτίζωσιν τοῖς ποσὶν αὐτῶν ὡσεὶ κῆπον λαχανίας·

Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0

Latin (Vulgate)

Terra enim, ad quam ingrederis possidendam, non est sicut terra Ægypti, de qua existi, ubi jacto semine in hortorum morem aquæ ducuntur irriguæ:

Spanish

Porque la tierra que vas a poseer no es como la tierra de Egipto de la que saliste, en la que sembraste tu semilla y la regaste con tu pie, como un jardín de hierbas;

Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)

Que la tierra á la cual entras para poseerla, no es como la tierra de Egipto de donde habéis salido, donde sembrabas tu simiente, y regabas con tu pie, como huerto de hortaliza.

English

For the land that you are entering to possess is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and irrigated on foot, like a vegetable garden.

✦ What the text says

Summary

Deuteronomy 11:10 contrasts the land Israel is about to enter with Egypt. It states that the new land's method of irrigation differs from how the Egyptians watered their fields — a comparison rendered through the phrase "watering with the foot" set against a garden of vegetables.

Key words

rish.Ta ("take possession of", H3423H) — qal infinitive with pronominal suffix h ("it"), expressing the purpose of entering the land: "to take possession of it."
ye.tza.Tem ("you came out", H3318G) — qal perfect, plural "you," marking the completed departure from Egypt as a finished event in the past.
tiz.Ra' ("you sowed", H2232) — qal imperfect, singular "you," denoting a repeated or customary action ("you would sow") rather than a single occurrence.
hish.Ki.ta ("you watered [it]", H8248G) — hiphil (causative) sequential perfect, continuing the narrative chain begun by tiz.Ra'; the causative stem indicates causing water to flow, i.e., irrigating.
rag.le.Kha ("your foot", H7272 + H9021) — construct noun with possessive suffix, forming the idiom "with your foot," describing the physical means of irrigation.

What the text says

The verse is built as a chain of relative clauses, each introduced by 'a.Sher ("where/that", H0834A), all modifying "the land" ('A.retz, H0776G). The first clause describes the land as the place "you are about to go" (va'-, H0935G, participle) "to take possession of it" (rish.Ta, H3423H). The second clause negates a comparison: the land is "not like the land of Egypt" (lo' khe'Eretz Mitzrayim), using the preposition khe. ("like", H9004) to set up the contrast. A third relative clause specifies Egypt as the place "from which you came out" (ye.tza.Tem, H3318G, perfect — a completed past action).

The final two clauses shift verbal aspect: tiz.Ra' ("you sowed", H2232) is an imperfect, suggesting a customary or repeated action in Egypt, followed by ve.hish.Ki.ta ("and you watered", H8248G), a sequential perfect continuing that same customary sense through the narrative vav (H9001). The hiphil stem of hish.Ki.ta is causative, meaning "to cause water to be given" — i.e., actively irrigating, as opposed to passive rainfall. The phrase be.rag.le.Kha ("with your foot", H7272 + H9021) specifies the physical method, compared at the end to ke.gan ha.ya.Rak ("like a garden of vegetables", H1588M + H3419), a simile describing small-scale, manually irrigated cultivation.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders lo' khe'Eretz Mitzrayim with a construction that separates the negation (οὐ) somewhat differently in syntax, followed by οὐχ ὥσπερ ("not as/like"), producing a doubled negative structure not present in the Hebrew's single lo' khe. The Vulgate's non est sicut terra Ægypti follows the Hebrew word order more closely. Regarding tiz.Ra' and hish.Ki.ta, the LXX uses subjunctive-like forms (σπείρωσιν, ποτίζωσιν, "whenever they might sow/water"), shifting the grammatical subject to a general "they" rather than the Hebrew's second-person "you," while the Hebrew and Vulgate maintain second-person singular address throughout.

This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.