Deuteronomy 27:3

Summary

Moses instructs that all the words of "this law" be written upon (stones, referenced by the feminine plural suffix "them") at the moment the people cross over into the land Yehovah is giving them — a land described as flowing with milk and honey, matching what Yehovah, the God of the ancestors, had spoken.

Key words

• kha.tav.Ta ("you will write", H3789) — qal sequential perfect; continues the narrative chain of commands begun earlier in the passage, marking a new required action in sequence.
• div.Rei ("words of", H1697G) — masculine plural construct; grammatically bound to "the law," meaning literally "the words of the law," not a general reference to speech.
• le.Ma.'an ("so that", H4616) — subordinating particle introducing purpose; connects the act of writing/crossing to the goal of entering the land.
• no.Ten ("giving", H5414G) — qal participle; expresses an ongoing or imminent action ("the one giving"), distinct from a completed act — the land-giving is presented as continuous or in-process rather than a finished past event.
• di.Ber ("he spoke", H1696I) — piel perfect; intensive stem marking a completed, emphatic act of speech, referring back to an earlier declaration by Yehovah.

What the text says

The verse opens with a vav-consecutive verb, kha.tav.Ta ("you will write", H3789), which grammatically continues the sequence of instructions rather than standing as an isolated command. The object is marked explicitly by the untranslated direct-object marker 'et (H0853) governing kol div.rei ha.to.rah ha.zot — "all the words of this law" (H3605, H1697G, H8451, H2063), a construct chain that ties "words" tightly to "the law," not to speech in general.

The timing clause uses an infinitive, 'a.ve.Re-kha ("your passing over", H5674A), attached to the preposition be ("when," H9003), producing "when you pass over" — a temporal rather than causal link. The purpose clause introduced by le.Ma.'an ("so that", H4616) connects this act to entry into "the land," described with the participle za.Vat ("flowing of", H2100G) in construct with cha.Lav ("milk", H2461) and de.Vash ("honey", H1706).

Two distinct divine epithets appear: Yehovah 'e.lo.Hei-kha ("Yehovah your God", H3068G/H0430G) as the one no.Ten ("giving", H5414G) the land, and later Yehovah 'e.lo.hei-'a.vo.Tei-kha ("Yehovah, God of your fathers", H3068G/H0430G/H0001G) as the one who di.Ber ("spoke", H1696I) the earlier promise — a piel perfect denoting a completed, weighty utterance.

Differences between versions

The LXX explicitly names "τὸν Ἰορδάνην" (the Jordan) as what is being crossed, an element not present as a proper noun in the Hebrew text, which uses only the infinitive "your passing over" without specifying the river. The Vulgate renders di.Ber ("he spoke", H1696I) as "juravit" ("he swore"), introducing an oath-nuance not present in the Hebrew verb, which denotes speaking/declaring rather than swearing.