Deuteronomy 29:1

Summary

Deuteronomy 29:1 introduces a new covenant that Yehovah commanded Moses to make with Israel in the land of Moab, explicitly distinguishing it from the earlier covenant made at Horeb (Sinai). The verse functions as a heading, using formal covenant-making vocabulary rooted in the Hebrew verb "to cut."

Key words

• dibrei ("words of", H1697G) — construct plural, opening the phrase "words of the covenant," a standard heading formula introducing legal/covenantal material.
• berit ("covenant", H1285) — feminine singular, appearing twice (vv. with "the" article), naming the object being contrasted between Moab and Horeb.
• tzivvah ("he commanded", H6680) — piel perfect, an intensive completed action; marks Yehovah as the one who issued the command to Moses.
• likhrot ("to cut/make", H3772H) — qal infinitive with prefixed li ("to"); the infinitive of purpose explaining why Moses was commanded, using the idiom "cutting" a covenant.
• karat ("he had made/cut", H3772H) — qal perfect, same root as likhrot but finite and past; describes the prior covenant-cutting at Horeb, creating a grammatical echo between the two covenant events.

What the text says

The sentence opens with the demonstrative 'elleh ("these", H0428) followed by the construct chain dibrei ha-berit ("words of the covenant"), a heading formula. A relative clause follows: 'asher tzivvah Yehovah 'et-Mosheh likhrot — "which Yehovah commanded Moses to cut/make." The infinitive likhrot is followed not by the direct-object marker but by 'et meaning "with" (H0854), so the construction reads "to cut [it] with the sons of Israel," identifying Israel as covenant partner rather than as covenant object. Location is given by be-'eretz Mo'av ("in the land of Moab").

The second half pivots on mi-levad ("besides", H0905J with prefixed min and le), a compound preposition meaning "apart from" or "in addition to." It reintroduces ha-berit with a new relative clause: 'asher karat 'itam be-Chorev — "which he had cut with them at Horeb." The repetition of the root כרת (H3772) in both infinitive (likhrot) and perfect (karat) forms creates a deliberate structural link: the same verbal action ("cutting") is used for both the Moab and the Horeb covenants, framing the Moab covenant as a distinct, additional instance of the same type of act.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew idiom "to cut" a covenant (likhrot, karat) is rendered differently across versions. The LXX uses στῆσαι ("to establish/set up") for likhrot and διέθέτο ("he arranged/disposed") for karat, losing the shared "cutting" root visible in Hebrew. The Vulgate uses feriret ("he might strike") for likhrot, which retains a physical, "striking" nuance close to "cutting," while using pepigit ("he fixed/compacted") for karat — a standard Latin idiom for treaty-making but not identical in imagery to feriret. Thus the Hebrew's repeated root linking both covenants is only partially preserved in the Vulgate and not preserved in the LXX.