Deuteronomy 2:22

Summary

The verse describes how Yehovah acted for the descendants of Esau in Seir the same way he acted for other peoples: he destroyed the Horites who lived there before them, and the descendants of Esau took possession of the land and have dwelt in it ever since. The sentence draws a comparison ("just as") between this precedent and an action described earlier in the chapter's context.

Key words

• 'a.Sah ("he had done", H6213A) — qal perfect, a completed action serving as the reference point for the comparison introduced by ka'asher ("just as").
• yo.she.Vim ("were dwelling", H3427) — qal participle, masculine plural, describing the sons of Esau in an ongoing state of dwelling in Seir, distinct from a completed action.
• hish.Mid ("he destroyed", H8045) — hiphil (causative) perfect, marking the subject as the one who caused the destruction of the Horite, rather than the Horite destroying itself.
• i.yi.ra.Shu ("they dispossessed", H3423H) — qal narrative (vav-consecutive) form, third person plural, continuing the story sequence after the destruction.
• i.ye.she.Vu ("they have dwelt", H3427) — qal narrative form, same root as yo.she.Vim above, showing the shift from the Horites' former dwelling to the sons of Esau's subsequent dwelling in the same place.

What the text says

The verse opens with the comparative particle ka'asher ("just as", H9004+H0834D) attached to the perfect verb 'a.Sah ("he had done", H6213A), establishing a completed prior action as the standard of comparison for what is described elsewhere in the chapter. The subject of 'a.Sah is unstated in this verse (marked simply as "he"), and the action is done li-vnei 'Esav ("for the descendants of Esau", H9005+H1121G+H6215H), who are further identified by the participle ha-yoshevim ("who were dwelling", H3427) "in Seir" (be-Se'ir, H8165A).

The second half of the verse shifts to a causative (hiphil) verb, hishmid ("he destroyed", H8045), with the Horite (ha-Chori, H2752) as direct object, marked by the untranslated object marker 'et (H0853). The phrase mi-pnei-hem ("from before them", H9006+H6440G+H9028) indicates the removal of the Horites from the presence of the sons of Esau. Two narrative (vav-consecutive) verbs follow in sequence: va-yirashum ("and they dispossessed them", H3423H) and va-yeshvu ("and they dwelt", H3427) — the same root as the earlier participle yoshevim, now marking a completed narrative action rather than an ongoing state. The final phrase tachtam ("in their place", H8478H) together with 'ad ha-yom ha-zeh ("until this day", H5704+H3117G+H2088) situates the outcome as continuing up to the time of the text's composition.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate (VULCLEM) renders the sequence somewhat differently, using participial and gerundive constructions ("delens," "tradens") that frame the destruction and land-transfer as a single continuous action performed by the same subject, rather than the two distinct narrative verbs (va-yirashum, va-yeshvu) seen in the Hebrew. The LXX (Swete) similarly uses κατεκληρονόμησαν ("they inherited/took as an inheritance") for the Hebrew va-yirashum ("they dispossessed"), a translation choice emphasizing possession rather than the displacement nuance carried by the Hebrew root H3423.