Deuteronomy 2:23

וְהָֽעַוִּים הַיֹּשְׁבִים בַּחֲצֵרִים עַד־עַזָּה כַּפְתֹּרִים הַיֹּצְאִים מִכַּפְתּוֹר הִשְׁמִידֻם וַיֵּשְׁבוּ תַחְתָּֽם׃

✦ Hebrew interlinear

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✦ The same verse in five languages

Hebrew

וְהָֽעַוִּ֛ים הַיֹּשְׁבִ֥ים בַּחֲצֵרִ֖ים עַד־עַזָּ֑ה כַּפְתֹּרִים֙ הַיֹּצְאִ֣ים מִכַּפְתּ֔וֹר הִשְׁמִידֻ֖ם וַיֵּשְׁב֥וּ תַחְתָּֽם׃

Greek (Septuagint)

καὶ οἱ Εὐαῖοι οἱ κατοικοῦντες ἐν Ἁσηδὼθ ἕως Γάζης, καὶ οἱ Καππάδοκες οἱ ἐξελθόντες ἐκ Καππαδοκίας ἐξέτριψαν, αὐτοὺς καὶ κατῳκίσθησαν ἀντ’ αὐτῶν.

Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0

Latin (Vulgate)

Hevæos quoque, qui habitabant in Haserim usque Gazan, Cappadoces expulerunt: qui egressi de Cappadocia deleverunt eos, et habitaverunt pro illis.

Spanish

Luego los heveos, que vivían en aldeas hasta Gaza: los caftoreos, que salieron de Caftor, los destruyeron y vivieron en su lugar).

Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)

Y á los Heveos que habitaban en Haserin hasta Gaza, los Caftoreos que salieron de Caftor los destruyeron, y habitaron en su lugar.)

English

And the Avvim, who lived in villages as far as Gaza, were destroyed by the Caphtorites, who came out of Caphtor and settled in their place.) The Defeat of Sihon (Numbers 21:21–30)

✦ What the text says

Summary

The verse reports that the Avvim ("Avvites", H5761G), who had been living in villages near Gaza, were destroyed by the Kaftorim ("Caphtorites", H3732), a people who came from Kaftor ("Caphtor", H3731). After the destruction, the Caphtorites settled in the place formerly occupied by the Avvites.

Key words

ha'Avvim ("the Avvites", H5761G) — definite article + proper name; the fronted topic of the sentence, introduced before its own relative clause.
yoshevim ("were dwelling", H3427) — qal participle, masculine plural; describes a continuous state ("the ones dwelling"), not a single completed act.
kaftorim ("Caphtorites", H3732) — gentilic plural noun without article marking origin (a people "of" Caphtor); functions as the grammatical subject of the destruction, even though it appears mid-verse.
hishmidum ("they destroyed them", H8045) — hiphil perfect, causative stem, with 3rd person masculine plural subject and a pronominal suffix ("them", H9038) attached as direct object; the causative form frames the action as one group actively causing the end of another.
vayeshevu ("and they dwelt", H3427) — qal form with narrative vav (H9001), marking sequential action: "and then they dwelt," continuing the story after the destruction.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built with the object placed before its verb: "the Avvites... the Caphtorites... [they] destroyed them." The Avvites are introduced first as a topic, described by a participial clause (yoshevim, "dwelling") that sets the scene — they were settled in chatzerim ("villages", H2691B) up to Azzah ("Gaza", H5804). Only after this description does the grammatical subject of the main verb appear: the Kaftorim, further described by their own participial clause (yotze'im, "coming forth") as originating from Kaftor. The verb hishmidum then supplies both the action (hiphil, causative "destroyed") and its object (the suffixed "them," referring back to the Avvites). The narrative continues with vayeshevu, marking the Caphtorites' subsequent settlement "in their place" (tachtam, H8478H + H9038), where the pronominal suffix again points back to the Avvites.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders ha'Avvim as Εὐαῖοι ("Hivites"), a different gentilic than the Hebrew Avvim. The LXX and the Vulgate also treat chatzerim ("villages") as a proper place name — Ἁσηδώθ in the LXX and "Haserim" in the Vulgate — where the Hebrew uses it as a common noun. The LXX further renders Kaftorim and Kaftor with Greek geographic terms, Καππάδοκες and Καππαδοκία, identifying the peoples/place differently than the transliterated Hebrew names preserved in most other versions.

This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.