Deuteronomy 3:5

Summary

Deuteronomy 3:5 describes the cities of Bashan taken by the Israelites: they were fortified with high walls, gates, and bars, and in addition to these there were a very large number of other towns without walls, described as belonging to "the perazi."

Key words

• 'arim ("cities", H5892B) — masculine plural noun, the head noun for the fortified settlements being described.
• betzurot ("fortified", H1219) — feminine plural adjective agreeing with 'arim; describes the defensive state of the cities.
• delatayim ("gates", H1817C) — dual form, indicating a pair (the two leaves of a single door), not simply a plural.
• levad ("apart", H0905J with prefixed preposition H9005) — construct form functioning as "besides / apart from," introducing the contrast with the unwalled settlements.
• harbeh ("many", H7235A) — Hiphil infinitive absolute used adverbially, intensifying the following me'od ("very", H3966) to stress the great quantity.

What the text says

The verse opens with kol 'elleh ("all these", H3605 + H0428), summarizing the list of cities named in the preceding verses. The predicate follows without a copular verb, typical of Hebrew nominal clauses: 'arim betzurot ("cities, fortified"), then a series of appositional nouns — chomah gevohah ("wall, high"), delatayim ("gates," dual), and u-veriach ("and bar") — piling up defensive features without additional verbs, giving a list-like, descriptive rhythm.

The second half of the verse, introduced by levad ("apart," H0905J), shifts to a contrast: besides these fortified cities there were 'arei ha-perazi ("cities of the perazi", H5892B construct + H6521), a term built from the root for open country or hamlets, describing unwalled or village-type settlements rather than a proper ethnic group in the Hebrew text itself. The quantity of these is stressed grammatically by harbeh me'od — an infinitive absolute (H7235A) reinforced by the adverb me'od ("very", H3966), a construction that intensifies the sense of "many" beyond what a simple adjective would convey.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew ha-perazi (from H6521, "hamlet-dweller" or "open-country dweller") is rendered in the LXX as τῶν Φερεζαίων ("of the Pherezites"), treating it as a proper ethnic name. The Vulgate instead renders the phrase descriptively as "oppidis innumeris, quae non habebant muros" ("towns without number, which had no walls"), following the sense of unwalled settlements rather than an ethnonym. Modern translations (BSB, SBLIBRE) follow the Vulgate's descriptive approach, speaking of "unwalled villages" rather than naming a people group.