Deuteronomy 2:5

Summary

Yehovah instructs the Israelites not to provoke the descendants of Esau to conflict, because he will not give them any of Esau's land — not even enough for a footstep — since he had already granted the hill country of Seir to Esau as a possession.

Key words

• tit.ga.Ru ("you engage in strife", H1624) — Hithpael jussive, second person masculine plural: a reflexive/reciprocal form expressing mutual engagement in conflict, negated by 'al to form a prohibition ("do not stir yourselves up against").
• 'e.Ten ("I will give", H5414G) — Qal imperfect, first person singular, expressing an ongoing or future negated action ("I will not give").
• mid.Rakh ("a treading place of", H4096) construct with kaf ("sole of", H3709H) and Ra.gel ("a foot", H7272) — a construct chain forming the idiom "a treading-place of the sole of a foot," an idiomatic minimal unit of land.
• ye.ru.Shah ("a possession", H3425) — feminine singular noun marking the land as a granted inheritance rather than a conquest.
• na.Ta.ti ("I have given", H5414G) — Qal perfect, first person singular, denoting a completed past action, contrasting with the imperfect 'e.Ten used earlier in the verse.

What the text says

The verse divides into two causal clauses, each introduced by ki ("for", H3588A), which function as subordinating particles giving the reasons for the initial prohibition. The prohibition itself, 'al-tit.ga.Ru vam ("may not you engage in strife with them"), uses the Hithpael stem of H1624, a reflexive/reciprocal form that frames the forbidden action as mutual engagement rather than a simple transitive verb — the strife would arise between two active parties.

The first ki-clause explains the withholding of land using the idiom mid.Rakh kaf-Ra.gel ("a treading-place of the sole of a foot"), built from a chain of construct nouns (H4096, H3709H, H7272) that together express an idiomatic extreme: not even the smallest measurable unit of ground, the space a footstep would occupy, will be given.

The second ki-clause shifts to the Qal perfect na.Ta.ti ("I have given", H5414G), marking a distinct completed action prior to the moment of speaking, in contrast to the negated imperfect 'e.Ten ("I will give") in the first clause. This grammatical shift — imperfect negated for what will not happen, perfect for what has already happened — underlines that the granting of har Se.'ir ("the hill country of Seir", H2022G + H8165G) to Esau, marked as ye.ru.Shah ("a possession", H3425), is a settled prior fact, not a future contingency.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders tit.ga.Ru ("you engage in strife") with συνάψητε πρὸς αὐτοὺς πόλεμον ("join battle against them"), making explicit the martial sense that the Hebrew Hithpael leaves more general. The Vulgate's ne moveamini contra eos ("do not be moved against them") likewise interprets the reflexive verb as agitation or hostile movement. Where the Hebrew reads le-'Esav ("to Esau", H6215H) as a personal name, the LXX has υἱοῖς Ἠσαύ ("to the sons of Esau"), specifying descendants rather than the individual.