Deuteronomy 26:1

Summary

Deuteronomy 26:1 opens a legal-narrative unit describing a future sequence: entering the land, receiving it as inheritance, taking possession of it, and settling in it. The verse sets up the temporal and conditional framework for the instructions that follow (regarding the offering of first fruits).

Key words

• ha.Yah ("it will be", H1961) — qal sequential perfect, opening formula that signals a future narrative sequence dependent on what follows.
• ta.Vo' ("you will go", H0935G) — qal imperfect, expresses the entering of the land as the triggering condition introduced by ki ("that/if", H3588A).
• no.Ten ("[is] about to give", H5414G) — qal participle, masculine singular, describing Yehovah as the one actively/ongoingly giving the land, not a completed past act.
• rish.Ta ("you will take possession of", H3423H) — qal sequential perfect with 3rd feminine singular suffix -ah ("her"/"it", H9034), continuing the chain of actions after entering.
• ya.Shav.ta ("you will dwell", H3427) — qal sequential perfect, closing the sequence of actions (enter, receive, possess, dwell).

What the text says

The verse is built as a chain of sequential perfect verbs (ha.Yah, rish.Ta, ya.Shav.ta) linked by the narrative ve ("and", H9001), a construction typical of conditional or temporal legal formulas in Biblical Hebrew. This chain is triggered by the subordinating particle ki (H3588A), rendered "that" or "if," which introduces the condition: ta.Vo' ("you will go/enter," H0935G), an imperfect verb indicating an action not yet completed at the time of speaking.

The land is described through a relative clause: 'a.Sher ("which," H0834A) Yehovah 'e.lo.Hei.kha ("your God," H0430G construct + H9021 suffix) no.Ten ("is about to give," H5414G) le.kha ("to you," H9005+H9031). The participle no.Ten presents the giving as an ongoing or imminent action attributed to Yehovah, distinct from a simple past tense — the grammar frames the land-grant as a continuing divine action rather than a completed historical fact. The final two verbs, rish.Ta and ya.Shav.ta, both carry the 3rd feminine singular suffix referring back to 'A.retz ("land," H0776G), which is grammatically feminine, and both continue the sequential perfect pattern begun with ha.Yah, marking possession and dwelling as consequences following entry into the land.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders no.Ten ("is about to give") with the infinitive construction δίδωσιν... κληρονομῆσαι ("gives... to inherit"), adding an explicit purpose infinitive not present as a separate word in the Hebrew participle. The Vulgate renders the same verb as daturus est ("is going to give"), a future periphrastic that parallels the Hebrew participle's forward-looking sense. The BSB and RV1909/SBLIBRE translations render ta.Vo' as "enter/entres," collapsing the subordinating ki into a temporal "when/cuando" rather than the conditional "that/if" reflected in the Hebrew particle's dual range.