Deuteronomy 24:9

Summary

The verse commands the audience to remember an event that Yehovah, their God, did to Miriam "on the way" during the departure from Egypt. It functions as a brief historical reminder attached to a legal/instructional context, without narrating the event itself.

Key words

• za.Khor ("remember", H2142) — qal infinitive absolute, a grammatical form used to intensify or emphasize the command to remember, rather than a simple finite imperative.
• 'a.Sah ("he did", H6213A) — qal perfect, marking a completed past action performed by the subject that follows (Yehovah).
• Yah.weh ("Yehovah", H3068G) 'e.lo.Hei.kha ("your God", H0430G + H9021) — the divine name followed by "God" in construct form with a second-person suffix, identifying the subject of the action as "Yehovah your God."
• le.mir.Yam ("to Miriam", H9005 + H4813G) — preposition le attached to the proper name Miriam, marking her as the recipient/object of the action 'a.Sah.
• be.tze.te.Khem ("when you came out", H9003 + H3318G + H9046) — preposition be plus infinitive plus second-person plural suffix, forming a temporal clause ("in your going out") that situates the action during the exodus from Egypt.

What the text says

The sentence opens with za.Khor, an infinitive absolute used independently as a command — grammatically this form places emphasis on the act of remembering itself, distinct from a standard imperative verb form. The object of remembering is introduced by the relative particle 'a.Sher ("that which"), followed by 'a.Sah ("he did"), a qal perfect verb indicating a single completed action in the past. The subject of this action, Yah.weh 'e.lo.Hei.kha ("Yehovah your God"), appears after the verb, which is typical Hebrew verb-subject word order.

The recipient of the action is marked by the preposition le attached to Mir.Yam ("to Miriam"), a proper female name. The phrase ba.De.rekh ("on the way", H9003 + H1870L) situates the action spatially, while the following clause be.tze.te.Khem mi.Mitz.Ra.yim ("when you came out from Egypt") uses an infinitive construct with a pronominal suffix (second-person plural, "you all") to give a temporal frame — literally "in your-going-out from Egypt." The switch from second-person singular suffix on "your God" (-kha) to second-person plural suffix on "your coming out" (-khem) reflects a shift in Hebrew address common in Deuteronomy, where singular and plural forms of "you" can alternate within a single verse.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders za.Khor ("remember", singular emphatic command) with μνήσθητι, a single imperative verb, without a separate construction to mark intensity as the Hebrew infinitive absolute does. The LXX also translates 'a.Sher ("that which") as ὅσα ("as much as/all that"), a slightly broader relative expression than the Hebrew single relative particle. The Vulgate's Mementote is a plural imperative ("remember," addressed to multiple people), differing from the Hebrew singular command form embedded in za.Khor with the singular suffix -kha on "your God."