Deuteronomy 2:21

Summary

The verse describes a people characterized as great, numerous, and tall — comparable to the Anakites — whom Yehovah destroyed. After their destruction, another group dispossessed them and settled in the land in their place. The Hebrew text uses pronominal suffixes throughout rather than naming the parties explicitly, relying on the preceding verses for context.

Key words

• 'am ("a people", H5971A) — masculine singular noun, the subject being described by the following three adjectives.
• Ram ("lofty", H7311A) — a qal participle functioning adjectivally ("the one being tall/lofty"), completing the triad of descriptors along with gadol ("great", H1419A) and rav ("numerous", H7227A).
• ka'anaqim ("like the Anakites", H6062) — a comparative preposition + gentilic plural noun, likening the described people's stature to a specific group.
• yashmidem ("he destroyed them", H8045) — hiphil (causative) narrative verb with 3rd person masculine plural suffix; Yehovah is the explicit grammatical subject.
• yeshevu tachtam ("they dwelt in place of them", H3427 + H8478H) — qal narrative verb followed by a construct noun with suffix, marking the final action in the sequence: settlement replacing the destroyed people.

What the text says

The verse opens with a noun phrase built from three coordinated adjectives — gadol, rav, and the participle Ram — all modifying 'am ("a people"), followed by a comparison ka'anaqim ("like the Anakites"). This construction piles up descriptors before any verb appears, so the identity and stature of the people are established before their fate is narrated.

The narrative then moves through three consecutive vav-prefixed verbs — yashmidem ("he destroyed them"), yiyrashum ("they dispossessed them"), and yeshevu ("they dwelt") — each attached to a 3rd person plural suffix -hem/-m ("them"/"their"). The grammatical subject of the first verb is explicit: Yehovah (H3068G). The subjects of the second and third verbs, however, are not named in this verse; they are marked only by the verb's plural form, so their identity depends on referents established earlier in the passage. The final phrase tachtam ("in place of them") uses a construct noun to mark spatial/positional replacement — literally "under-them," i.e., "instead of them."

Differences between versions

The Hebrew Ram ("lofty," describing height) is rendered in the LXX as δυνατώτερον ὑμῶν ("mightier than you"), a divergence in meaning from stature to strength/comparison with the addressee. The LXX also adds ἕως τῆς ἡμέρας ταύτης ("until this day"), a phrase not present in this Hebrew clause. Regarding the unnamed subjects of "they dispossessed" and "they dwelt," the Spanish RV1909 supplies "los Ammonitas" explicitly, while SBLIBRE instead supplies "Israel" for the phrase "from before them" — these are interpretive additions not present as explicit nouns in the Hebrew text itself, which relies solely on suffixed pronouns.