Deuteronomy 29:7

Summary

The verse recounts, in narrative past tense, the arrival of the Israelites at a certain place, followed by the aggressive advance of two kings — Sihon of Heshbon and Og of Bashan — against them for battle, and their defeat by the group speaking.

Key words

• ta.Vo.'u ("you came", H0935G) — qal narrative verb, second person plural, continuing the chain of past events introduced by the narrative va- ("and then...").
• me.lekh- ("king of", H4428G) — construct noun, masculine singular, appearing twice to link each king directly to his territory (Heshbon, Bashan) without an intervening word.
• li-k.ra.Te.nu ("to meet us", H7122H + H9035) — infinitive construct with a preposition and a first-person plural pronominal suffix "us"; expresses purpose ("in order to meet us") and specifies who is being approached.
• na.Ke-m ("we defeated them", H5221 + H9038) — hiphil narrative verb, causative stem, first-person plural, with an attached third-person plural suffix "them"; the causative form conveys the sense of "causing them to be struck/defeated."
• va.yye.Tze' ("he came out", H3318G) — qal narrative verb, third person singular, marking the next event in sequence (Sihon's advance).

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built as a chain of narrative verbs, each introduced by the narrative va- ("and then"), which is the standard device for sequencing past events: "you came" (ta.Vo.'u), "he came out" (va.yye.Tze'), "we defeated" (na.Ke-m). This chain creates a continuous storyline rather than a list of independent statements. The two kings, Sihon and Og, are each introduced with the construct form me.lekh- ("king of") directly attached to their territory names (Heshbon, Bashan), a compact grammatical construction that avoids the need for "of" as a separate word.

The purpose clause li-k.ra.Te.nu la-mil.cha.Mah ("to meet us for battle") uses an infinitive construct with a first-person plural suffix, meaning the text specifies that the kings advanced with the intent of meeting "us" — the speaking group — in battle. The final verb, na.Ke-m ("we defeated them"), is in the hiphil (causative) stem, a Hebrew verbal pattern that frequently marks bringing about an effect on an object, here the defeat of the two kings' forces, marked by the attached suffix "them" (H9038).

Differences between versions

The Hebrew li-k.ra.Te.nu ("to meet us", with the suffix "us", H9035) differs from the LXX, which reads εἰς συνάντησιν ὑμῖν ("to meet you," with "you" rather than "us"). The Vulgate's nobis ("us") and the Hebrew agree on the first-person plural, while the LXX's Greek pronoun shifts to second person plural in this clause.