Deuteronomy 2:34

Summary

The verse describes the capture of all the cities belonging to Sihon (referenced by the pronominal suffix "his") at that specific time, followed by the total destruction of every city's population — men, women, and children — with no survivor left remaining.

Key words

• nilKod ("we captured", H3920) — qal narrative verb, first person plural, continuing the sequential storyline of conquest.
• nacharem ("we totally destroyed", H2763A) — hiphil (causative) narrative verb; the causative stem intensifies the action beyond simple destruction to "cause to be devoted to destruction."
• 'ir metim ("city of men", H5892B + H4962) — construct chain; 'ir ("city") governs metim ("men"), producing a phrase describing the city's male population specifically.
• hish'Arnu ("we spared", H7604) — hiphil perfect, first person plural, marking completed action; negated by lo' ("not", H3808) to state total absence of survivors.
• sarid ("a survivor", H8300) — singular noun functioning as the object of the negated verb, emphasizing that not even one remained.

What the text says

The verse is built on two paired narrative verbs joined by the vav-consecutive construction (va-, H9001): nilKod ("we captured") and nacharem ("we totally destroyed"). Both are first-person plural forms, continuing the report as a first-person account of military action. The first verb takes as its object "all his cities" (kol 'aRav), using a construct chain where kol ("all", H3605) governs 'aRav ("cities", H5892B) with the third-person masculine suffix "his" attached.

The second verb, nacharem, is in the hiphil stem, which typically signals causation — here indicating that the subjects caused total destruction rather than performing an ordinary act of ruin. Its object is another construct phrase, "every city of men" (kol 'ir metim), followed by two additional nouns joined by simple conjunctions: "the women" (ha-nnaShim) and "the little ones" (ha-Taf). Grammatically, 'ir metim forms a construct relationship — "city of men" — suggesting the city is characterized by its male population, though the following list separately names women and children as also affected.

The final clause uses a perfect-tense verb, hish'Arnu ("we spared", H7604), negated by lo' ("not"), with sarid ("a survivor", H8300) as its singular object. The perfect aspect marks this as a completed, summarizing statement: the outcome of the prior actions is that no single survivor remained.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders 'et-kol-'ir metim ("every city of men") as πᾶσαν πόλιν ἑξῆς ("every city in succession/one after another"), differing from the Hebrew's literal "city of men" construct phrase. The Vulgate renders the destruction clause more analytically, adding interfectis habitatoribus earum ("their inhabitants having been killed") and separating viris ac mulieribus et parvulis ("men and women and little ones") as a further specification not present as a separate clause in the Hebrew syntax. The LXX's closing phrase, οὐ κατελίπομεν ζωγρείαν ("we left no one alive/no captive"), diverges lexically from the Hebrew sarid ("a survivor", H8300), using ζωγρείαν ("live capture" or "prisoner taken alive") instead.