Deuteronomy 18:2

Summary

Deuteronomy 18:2 states that a certain group (referred to with singular suffixes in the Hebrew, "he/his") will not have a landed inheritance among his fellow countrymen, because Yehovah himself is his inheritance, exactly as Yehovah had spoken to him.

Key words

• nachalah ("an inheritance", H5159) — feminine singular noun, used twice (as subject of the negated clause and again as predicate describing Yehovah), framing the verse as a contrast between two kinds of "inheritance."
• qerev ("midst", H7130) — construct form meaning "the midst of," here governing "his countrymen," so the phrase reads "in the midst of his brothers."
• 'echav ("countrymen/brothers", H0251) — masculine plural construct with 3rd-person singular suffix ("his brothers"), identifying the group from whom the inheritance is withheld.
• Yehovah (H3068) — the divine name, placed immediately before the pronoun hu' ("he", H1931) to form an emphatic identification: "Yehovah, he [is] his inheritance."
• diber ("he spoke", H1696) — Piel perfect, denoting a completed, intensified act of speaking, referring back to an earlier statement by Yehovah.

What the text says

The verse is built on two parallel clauses using the same noun, nachalah ("inheritance", H5159). The first clause negates it: "an inheritance will not be to him" (lo yihyeh lo), using the Qal imperfect yihyeh ("it will belong", H1961), which expresses a general, ongoing state rather than a single event — the lack of inheritance is a standing condition, not a one-time occurrence. The phrase be-qerev 'echav ("in the midst of his countrymen", H7130 + H0251) locates this absence specifically among his own kin group, using construct chains that tie "midst" and "brothers" together with the pronominal suffix "his."

The second clause reverses the statement: Yehovah hu' nachalato — "Yehovah, he [is] his inheritance." The independent pronoun hu' (H1931) placed right after the divine name creates emphasis, isolating Yehovah as the specific answer to the lack just mentioned. The clause closes with ka'asher dibber-lo ("as he spoke to him"), where the Piel perfect diber (H1696) marks a prior completed speech-act, presenting the current situation as fulfillment of an earlier statement rather than a new declaration.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew consistently uses third-person singular suffixes ("him," "his brothers," "his inheritance"), while the LXX (Swete) shifts to plural forms — αὐτοῖς, ἀδελφοῖς αὐτῶν, κλῆρος αὐτοῦ mixes plural and singular — and the Vulgate likewise renders with plural referents ("eorum," "illis"), describing a group rather than an individual referent implied by the Hebrew's singular grammar. The Vulgate also adds an interpretive phrase, "nihil aliud accipient de possessione fratrum suorum" ("they will receive nothing else from the possession of their brothers"), which is more expansive than the Hebrew's simple negated existential clause nachalah lo yihyeh lo.