Deuteronomy 11:5

Summary

This verse continues a description of actions performed by Yehovah in the wilderness, addressed to the audience in the second person plural. It marks a temporal boundary, extending from those wilderness events "until" the arrival at "this place."

Key words

• 'a.Sher ("which", H0834A) — relative particle introducing the clause, linking back to actions described in the preceding verses.
• 'a.Sah ("he did", H6213A) — qal perfect, third person singular, indicating a completed action; the subject (unstated in this fragment) is implied from context.
• mid.Bar ("wilderness", H4057B) — masculine singular noun with preposition ba ("in the", H9003), marking the location of the action.
• bo.'a.Khem ("your coming", H0935G) — qal infinitive construct with second person masculine plural suffix; combined with 'ad ("until", H5704) it forms the phrase "until your coming," i.e., "until you came."
• ma.Kom ("place", H4725) — masculine singular noun, definite via the article ha (H9009), further specified by the demonstrative Zeh ("this", H2088).

What the text says

The Hebrew clause is built around the qal perfect verb 'a.Sah ("he did", H6213A), whose subject is not present in this word list but is grammatically implied from a preceding antecedent (likely Yehovah, based on the broader passage). The action is directed lakhem ("to you", H9005+H9036), using the second person masculine plural suffix, and located bammidbar ("in the wilderness", H9003+H4057B).

The temporal boundary of the statement is marked twice with 'ad ("until", H5704). The first instance governs the infinitive construct bo'akhem ("your coming", H0935G), a grammatical construction where the infinitive with a pronominal suffix functions like a verbal noun — literally "until your coming," rendered in translation as "until you came" or "until you reached." The second 'ad introduces the destination itself: hammaqom hazzeh ("this place", H4725+H2088+H9009), a noun phrase made definite by the article and specified by the demonstrative.

The structure highlights a temporal span: the action performed "in the wilderness" (H4057B) continues until (H5704) the moment of "coming" (H0935G) to a specific, immediate location, "this place" (H2088), pointed to as if present to the speaker's audience.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew text uses the second person plural suffix lakhem ("to you", H9005+H9036), addressing the audience directly. The LXX (Swete) instead reads ἡμῖν ("to us"), a first person plural pronoun, shifting the grammatical person from second to first. The Vulgate follows the Hebrew pattern with vobisque ("and to you"), retaining the second person plural. The Spanish (RV1909, SBLIBRE) and English (BSB) translations also preserve the second person ("con vosotros" / "con ustedes" / "for you"), aligning with the Hebrew rather than the LXX's first-person rendering.