Deuteronomy 14:2

Summary

The verse states that the addressee (Israel, second person singular masculine) is a qadosh ("holy") people belonging to Yehovah, and that Yehovah has chosen them from among all the peoples on earth to become his segullah ("possession/treasure"). The statement functions as the grounding clause (ki, "for") for a preceding instruction.

Key words

• qadosh ("holy", H6918G) — masculine singular adjective describing 'am ("people", H5971A); no verb "to be" is present in Hebrew, the predication is nominal (“a holy people [is] you”).
• bachar ("he has chosen", H0977) — Qal perfect, third person masculine singular, subject Yehovah; the perfect aspect marks the choosing as a completed act with ongoing relevance.
• hayot ("to become/to be", H1961) — Qal infinitive, dependent on the preposition li ("to"), expressing purpose or result of the choosing: "...chose you (in order) to become...".
• segullah ("possession", H5459) — feminine singular noun in construct with 'am ("people of"), forming the phrase "a people of possession," i.e., a people that constitutes a treasured possession.
• ba ("in you", combination of H9003 + H9031) — prepositional phrase with pronominal suffix, placed before the verb bachar, giving emphatic fronting: "and in/on you Yehovah has chosen."

What the text says

The verse opens with the particle ki (H3588A), here functioning as a causal conjunction ("for"), linking this statement to what precedes it as a reason. The first clause has no explicit copula: 'am qadosh 'attah la-Yehovah 'eloheikha literally reads "a people holy [are] you, belonging to Yehovah your God," with the preposition la (H9005) attached to Yehovah indicating possession or dedication rather than mere location.

The second clause begins with the conjunction u ("and", H9002) attached to the prepositional phrase be-kha ("in you", H9003+H9031), which is fronted before the verb bachar ("he has chosen", H0977). This word order places emphasis on "you" as the object of the choosing before naming the subject Yehovah (H3068G). The verb is followed by the infinitive hayot ("to become", H1961), governed by the preposition li (H9005), expressing the purpose of the choice: to become lo ("for him", H9033) le-'am segullah ("a people of possession", H5459), a construct phrase where 'am (H5971A) is defined by segullah, denoting a people set apart as a valued possession.

The final clause uses min ("from", H9006) with kol ("all", H3605) in construct before ha-'ammim ("the peoples", H5971A), marking the comparison "from among all the peoples," followed by the relative clause 'asher 'al-penei ha-'adamah ("who are on the face of the ground", H0834A + H5921A + H6440J + H0127I), locating these peoples geographically across the whole earth.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders segullah (H5459) as periousion ("prized" or "select"), and the Vulgate uses peculiarem ("particular, one's own"), both conveying the sense of a distinct possession without a single fixed equivalent for the Hebrew term. The Hebrew min kol ha-'ammim ("from all the peoples") is rendered by the LXX as apo pantōn tōn ethnōn ("from all the nations") and by the Vulgate as de cunctis gentibus ("from all nations"), both using terms for "nations" where the Hebrew has 'ammim ("peoples").