Deuteronomy 27:13

Summary

The verse lists the six tribes who are to stand on Mount Ebal in association with the curse, as opposed to the tribes designated for the blessing on Mount Gerizim (mentioned in the preceding verse). It names Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali as the group positioned "on the curse."

Key words

• ya'amDu ("they will stand", H5975G) — qal imperfect, third person masculine plural: expresses a future or ongoing action, "they will stand/take their stand."
• 'Elleh ("these", H0428) — demonstrative particle referring back to the tribes named at the end of the verse, syntactically anticipating them.
• keLalah ("curse", H7045) — feminine singular noun with the definite article ha (H9009), "the curse," the object marked by the preposition 'al ("on", H5921A).
• Har ("mountain of", H2022G) — masculine singular noun in construct form, linking directly to 'eiVal ("Ebal", H5858C) to form "mountain of Ebal."
• ve ("and", H9002) — conjunction repeated before 'aSher, zevuLun, and naftaLi, structuring the six tribal names into a list with internal groupings.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence opens with the demonstrative 'Elleh ("these") followed by the verb ya'amDu ("they will stand"), before the subject — the six tribal names — is actually given at the end of the verse. This is a common Hebrew construction where a pronoun anticipates a noun phrase that follows later, creating a build-up: the reader/hearer knows a group is described before learning exactly who they are.

The verb ya'amDu takes the preposition 'al ("on/upon", H5921A) governing "the curse" (ha-keLalah), a construction that in Hebrew indicates association or position with respect to the curse, rather than a strictly physical "standing on top of a curse." This phrase 'al-ha-keLalah is combined with a separate locative phrase, be-Har 'eiVal ("on the mountain of Ebal"), indicating the geographic location where this standing occurs.

The list of six names — re'uVen, gad, 'aSher, zevuLun, dan, naftaLi — is presented with conjunctions (ve, "and") appearing irregularly: after Reuben and Gad, no conjunction connects to Asher, but "and" appears before Asher, again before Zebulun's group is joined only by simple juxtaposition with Dan, and finally "and" precedes Naphtali. This creates informal sub-groupings within the list rather than a uniform coordinated series.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders 'al-ha-keLalah ("on/concerning the curse") as ἐπὶ τῆς κατάρας ("upon the curse"), keeping a similar prepositional structure to the Hebrew. The Vulgate expands this into a purpose clause, "ad maledicendum" ("for cursing" / "to pronounce a curse"), which shifts the grammatical construction from a static positional phrase in the Hebrew to an infinitival purpose expression in Latin. The BSB similarly interprets the phrase as purposive: "to deliver the curse," reflecting the Vulgate's reading rather than a literal rendering of the Hebrew preposition 'al ("on").