Deuteronomy 29:11
טַפְּכֶם נְשֵׁיכֶם וְגֵרְךָ אֲשֶׁר בְּקֶרֶב מַחֲנֶיךָ מֵחֹטֵב עֵצֶיךָ עַד שֹׁאֵב מֵימֶֽיךָ׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
טַפְּכֶ֣ם נְשֵׁיכֶ֔ם וְגֵ֣רְךָ֔ אֲשֶׁ֖ר בְּקֶ֣רֶב מַחֲנֶ֑יךָ מֵחֹטֵ֣ב עֵצֶ֔יךָ עַ֖ד שֹׁאֵ֥ב מֵימֶֽיךָ׃
αἱ γυναῖκες ὑμῶν καὶ τὰ ἔκγονα ὑμῶν καὶ ὁ προσήλυτος ὁ ἐν μέσῳ τῆς παρεμβολῆς ὑμῶν, ἀπὸ ξυλοπλοινοις κόπου ὑμῶν καὶ ἕως ὑδροφόρου ὑμῶν,
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
liberi et uxores vestræ, et advena qui tecum moratur in castris, exceptis lignorum cæsoribus, et his qui comportant aquas:
sus pequeños, sus mujeres y los extranjeros que están en medio de sus campamentos, desde el que corta su leña hasta el que saca su agua,
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Vuestros niños, vuestras mujeres, y tus extranjeros que habitan en medio de tu campo, desde el que corta tu leña hasta el que saca tus aguas:
your children and wives, and the foreigners in your camps who cut your wood and draw your water—
✦ What the text says
Summary
The verse continues a list of the people present at the covenant assembly: the little ones, the wives, and the sojourner within the camp — described in totality by a merism running "from the wood-cutter to the water-drawer." It specifies who belongs to the "you" already addressed in the preceding verses.
Key words
- ta.pe ("little one[s]", H2945) — masculine singular construct, opening the list, bound to the following suffix "your."
- ge.re.kha ("sojourner", H1616 + H9021) — singular construct with singular suffix kha, contrasting with the plural suffix khem used for "your" on the first two nouns.
- cho.Tev ("cutter of", H2404) — qal active participle in construct form, meaning "the one who cuts," bound to 'e.Tzei.kha ("your wood[s]").
- sho.'Ev ("drawer of", H7579) — qal active participle in construct form, "the one who draws," bound to mei.Mei.kha ("your water[s]").
- 'ad ("unto", H5704) — preposition pairing with me ("from", H9006) to form the merism "from...to," expressing an inclusive range rather than a literal boundary.
What the text says
The Hebrew sentence is a chain of construct nouns, each bound to a pronominal suffix meaning "your": ta.pe.khem ("your little ones"), ne.shei.khem ("your wives"), and ge.re.kha ("your sojourner"). A grammatical shift occurs partway through the list: the first two nouns take the plural suffix khem ("your," addressed to the group), while ge.re.kha and everything that follows take the singular suffix kha ("your," addressed to an individual). This shift between plural and singular address is preserved in the consonantal text and is a feature the English or Latin translations do not distinguish, since both render "your" uniformly.
The final clause uses two qal participles in construct form, cho.Tev ("the one cutting") and sho.'Ev ("the one drawing"), each governing a plural noun with suffix — "your wood[s]" and "your water[s]." These participles function as substantives ("the wood-cutter," "the water-drawer") rather than as verbs describing an ongoing action. The construction me...'ad ("from...unto") linking these two participial phrases forms a merism, a figure that names two extremes to indicate the whole range of people encompassed between them — here, the lowest categories of laborers within the camp.
Differences between versions
The LXX lists the groups in a different order — "your wives and your children" — while the Hebrew has ta.pe ("little ones") before ne.shei ("wives"). The Vulgate translates the me...'ad construction as exceptis ("except"), treating the wood-cutters and water-drawers as excluded from the assembly, whereas the Hebrew merism me...'ad functions to include this class as part of the whole group being addressed, not to set them apart from it.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.