Deuteronomy 29:8

Summary

Deuteronomy 29:8 recounts, in first-person plural narrative, how "we" (Israel) took the land of the defeated peoples and assigned it as an inheritance to three tribal groups: the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh.

Key words

• ni.Kach ("we took", H3947G) — qal narrative form, first-person plural: continues the story sequence begun in earlier verses ("and then we took...").
• 'ar.Tza ("land", H0776G) — feminine singular noun in construct form, "land of," bound to the following suffix -m ("their"), i.e., "their land."
• ni.te.Na ("we gave", H5414G) — qal narrative, first-person plural, parallel in form to ni.Kach, continuing the sequence "and then we gave."
• na.cha.Lah ("an inheritance", H5159) — feminine singular noun, unbound, indicating the purpose or status of the gift ("for an inheritance").
• cha.Tzi ("[the] half of", H2677) — masculine singular construct noun, linking to She.vet ("tribe of", H7626H) to form "half of the tribe of," itself in construct with m.na.Shi ("Manassite", H4520).

What the text says

The verse is built on two parallel narrative verbs, ni.Kach ("we took") and ni.te.Na ("we gave"), both first-person plural qal forms with the narrative va- prefix (H9001) that chains actions in sequence. This grammatical parallelism ties the taking of the land directly to the giving of it, presenting both as continuous acts performed by the same collective subject "we."

The object of the first verb is 'ar.Tza ("land"), marked by the direct object particle 'et (H0853) and carrying the pronominal suffix -m ("their"), specifying whose land was taken. The second verb takes the suffix -h ("it," H9034) referring back to that same land, and is followed by le-nachalah ("for an inheritance," H9005 + H5159), indicating the purpose of the transfer rather than a direct object.

The recipients are listed through a chain of gentilic nouns — r.'u.ve.Ni ("Reubenite," H7206), ga.Di ("Gadite," H1425), and the construct phrase cha.Tzi She.vet ha-m.na.Shi ("half the tribe of the Manassite," H2677 + H7626H + H4520) — each preceded by the preposition le- ("to/for," H9005) with the definite article, marking each group as a distinct beneficiary of the land grant.

Differences between versions

The LXXSWETE renders the second verb as ἔδωκα ("I gave"), a first-person singular form, where the Hebrew ni.te.Na ("we gave," H5414G) is first-person plural. The Vulgate (tradidimus, "we handed over") and the Hebrew agree in using a plural form for this verb. The LXX also renders na.cha.Lah ("inheritance," H5159) with the phrase ἐν κλήρῳ ("by lot/portion"), a slightly different nuance from the Hebrew's simple "for an inheritance," and from the Vulgate's possidendam ("to be possessed").