Deuteronomy 12:29

Summary

The verse describes a conditional/temporal sequence: when Yehovah destroys the nations before the Israelite as he enters their territory, the Israelite will then dispossess them and settle in their land. The Hebrew marks this as a chain of consequence using shifting verb forms rather than simple narrative past tense.

Key words

• yakh.Rit ("he will cut off", H3772I) — hiphil (causative) imperfect: Yehovah is the causal agent bringing about the destruction of the nations, not merely a bystander to their downfall.
• go.Yim ("nations", H1471A) — masculine plural noun, the direct object (marked by 'et) of the cutting-off action, later resumed as the object of dispossession.
• Re.shet ("dispossessing", H3423H) — qal infinitive, expressing purpose: the Israelite's entry into the land is explicitly framed as being "in order to dispossess" the nations.
• ya.rash.Ta ("you will dispossess", H3423H) — qal sequential perfect, continuing the logical/temporal chain begun by the conditional ki-clause; grammatically dependent on what precedes.
• ya.shav.Ta ("you will dwell", H3427) — qal sequential perfect, the final link in the chain: settlement follows dispossession, which follows Yehovah's action.

What the text says

The verse opens with the conditional particle ki ("if"/"when", H3588A) governing a hiphil imperfect verb, yakhrit, whose subject is Yehovah ("Yehovah", H3068G) 'elohekha ("your God", H0430G). This construction places Yehovah as the causative agent of the nations' removal — the verb form itself (hiphil) encodes causation, distinguishing this from a simple qal "the nations will fall."

The relative clause 'asher 'attah va' shammah ("where you are about to go there") uses a qal participle (va', "coming/going") to describe the Israelite's ongoing approach toward the land, followed by the infinitive larèshet ("to dispossess"), which states the purpose of that approach. The direct object of both the cutting-off and the purpose clause is 'otam ("them"), referring back to ha-goyim ("the nations").

After the initial ki-clause, the verse shifts to two sequential perfect verbs, ve-yarashta ("and you will dispossess") and ve-yashavta ("and you will dwell"), each introduced by the narrative vav. This verb form typically continues a chain of action following a preceding clause, here linking Yehovah's action to the resulting human actions of dispossession and settlement in 'artsam ("their land", H0776G), a construct noun with pronominal suffix.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the object of dispossession partly as "the land" (γῆν αὐτῶν, "land of them") rather than consistently "them" (the nations) as in the Hebrew 'otam. Where the Hebrew has the Israelite dispossess "them" (the nations) and then dwell "in their land," the LXX text as given repeats "and their land, in their land," shifting the object of κατακληρονομήσῃς ("you shall inherit") from the nations to the land itself. The Vulgate follows the Hebrew structure more closely, rendering ki as "Quando" ("when") and preserving "eas" ("them," referring to the nations) as the object of "possederis" ("you shall possess").