Deuteronomy 21:9

Summary

The verse closes a legal procedure: the addressee (singular "you") is instructed to remove the guilt of innocent blood from the community, this action being what constitutes "doing what is right" in the eyes of Yehovah (H3068G).

Key words

• te.va.'Er ("you will remove", H1197I) — piel imperfect, second person masculine singular; the piel stem gives an intensive/causative nuance, "to actively clear away" rather than a simple removal.
• ha.Dam ("the blood", H1818) — definite noun, masculine singular; marked with the article, pointing to a specific, previously mentioned blood.
• na.Ki ("innocent", H5355A) — adjective modifying Dam, also carrying the definite article (ha.Na.ki), agreeing in definiteness with the noun it qualifies.
• kir.Be.cha ("from your midst", H7130G + H9021) — construct noun with pronominal suffix "your," indicating removal from within a collective group associated with "you."
• ta.'a.Seh ("you will do", H6213A) — qal imperfect, second person masculine singular, contrasting in stem with te.va.'Er: a plain (non-intensive) action verb introduced by the particle ki (H3588A).

What the text says

The clause opens with the conjunction ve ("and", H9002) plus the independent pronoun 'a.Tah ("you", H0859A), placing emphasis on the addressee before the verb — a construction that highlights the subject rather than simply stating the action. The verb te.va.'Er is piel imperfect, giving the sense of thoroughly clearing out or purging, applied to ha.Dam ha.Naki ("the innocent blood"), both elements bearing the definite article and standing in agreement as noun and adjective. The phrase mi.kir.Be.cha ("from your midst") uses the construct form of kerev with a second-person suffix, specifying that the blood is removed from a group to which "you" belongs.

The second half of the verse is introduced by ki (H3588A), which the word-by-word data glosses as "for" or conditional "if/that." This connects the removal of blood to the verb ta.'a.Seh ("you will do"), in the qal (simple) stem, contrasting with the intensive piel of the first verb. The object of this verb is ha.Yashar ("the right", H3477G), a substantized adjective with the article functioning as a noun ("the right thing"), followed by the prepositional phrase be.'einei Yehovah ("in the eyes of Yehovah", H5869H construct + H3068G), a construct phrase literally "in the eyes of," expressing evaluation from Yehovah's perspective.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the closing phrase as ἔναντι κυρίου τοῦ θεοῦ σου ("before the Lord your God"), adding "your God" (θεοῦ σου) where the Hebrew word-by-word data shows only Yehovah without a possessive or divine-title expansion. The LXX also translates ha.Yashar with two terms, τὸ καλὸν καὶ τὸ ἀρεστόν ("the good and the pleasing"), where the Hebrew has a single adjective ha.Yashar ("the right"). The Vulgate shifts the causal/conditional sense of ki into a temporal clause "cum feceris quod praecepit Dominus" ("when you have done what the Lord commanded"), introducing "commanded" (praecepit) instead of the Hebrew's evaluative "right in the eyes of."