Deuteronomy 3:28

Summary

Yehovah instructs Moses to commission Joshua, giving him three imperatives of encouragement and authority, because it will be Joshua — not Moses — who crosses ahead of the people and causes them to inherit the land that Moses will only see.

Key words

• Tzav ("commission", H6680) — piel imperative, an intensive command form directing Moses to formally charge Joshua.
• chazeKehu ("encourage him", H2388G) — piel imperative with 3ms suffix "him," stacking a second intensive command onto the first.
• 'ameTzehu ("strengthen him", H0553) — piel imperative with 3ms suffix, a third consecutive command, reinforcing the emphasis through repetition.
• ya'aVor ("he will pass over", H5674A) — qal imperfect, expressing Joshua's future action of crossing ahead of the people.
• yanChil ("he will give as an inheritance", H5157) — hiphil (causative) imperfect, meaning Joshua will cause the people to inherit, not merely lead them.

What the text says

The verse opens with three consecutive piel imperatives — Tzav ("commission", H6680), chazeKehu ("encourage him", H2388G), and 'ameTzehu ("strengthen him", H0553) — all addressed to Moses (you, m.). The piel stem intensifies each verb's basic meaning, and the stacking of three commands in sequence produces a rhetorical emphasis on the seriousness of the charge being given to Joshua. The pronominal suffixes hu ("him", H9033) on the second and third verbs specify that the encouragement and strengthening are directed at Joshua, named explicitly in the first clause via Yehoshu'a ("Joshua", H3091G).

The causal clause beginning with ki ("for", H3588A) explains the reason for the commission: hu ("he", H1931) — a pronoun placed for emphasis — ya'aVor ("he will pass over", H5674A), using the qal imperfect to indicate a future action. This crossing happens lifNei ("before", H6440G) ha'Am hazZeh ("this people", H5971A + H2088). The second half of the verse repeats the emphatic pronoun hu ("he", H1931) before yanChil ("he will give as an inheritance", H5157), a hiphil imperfect. The hiphil stem is causative, meaning Joshua will cause the people to take possession of the land, rather than simply inherit it himself. The land is qualified by the relative clause 'asher tir'Eh ("which you will see", H0834A + H7200G), using a qal imperfect verb addressed to Moses (you, m.), tying the land's identity directly to Moses' own act of seeing it.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders yanChil ("he will give as an inheritance", H5157) with κατακληρονομήσει, adding αὖ ("again"), a nuance not present in the Hebrew imperfect form. The Vulgate uses dividet ("he will divide") for the same verb, emphasizing division of the land rather than the causative "giving as inheritance" sense carried by the Hebrew hiphil.