Deuteronomy 31:23

Summary

Yehovah commissions Joshua son of Nun as successor to lead Israel, commanding him to be strong and courageous. The verse grounds this command in a double assurance: Joshua will bring the people into the land promised by oath, and Yehovah will be present with him throughout.

Key words

• y.Tzav ("he commissioned", H6680) — piel narrative verb; the intensive stem indicates a formal, deliberate act of commanding/charging, not a casual instruction.
• chaZak ("be strong", H2388G) and 'eMatz ("be bold", H0553) — two qal imperatives in sequence, joined by ve ("and", H9002), forming a double command addressed directly to Joshua.
• taVi' ("you will bring", H0935P) — hiphil (causative) imperfect: Joshua is not merely entering the land himself but causing the people to enter it; the imperfect aspect frames this as a future, ongoing task.
• nishBa'ti ("I swore", H7650) — niphal perfect: a completed act of oath-taking, marking the land-promise as already established before this moment.
• 'ehYeh ("I will be", H1961) — qal imperfect of the verb "to be," paired with 'iMakh ("with you", H5973A + H9031), expressing continuing future presence.

What the text says

The verse opens with two narrative vav-chained verbs — y.Tzav ("he commissioned") and i.yoMer ("he said") — establishing a sequence: first the act of commissioning, then the content of speech. The subject of y.Tzav is not named by a separate noun in the Hebrew clause itself; it is carried over from the preceding narrative context. The direct object marker 'et (H0853) before ye.ho.Shu.a' signals Joshua as the one commissioned, identified further by the construct phrase bin-Nun ("son of Nun").

The speech itself begins with the paired imperatives chaZak and 'eMatz, both second-person masculine singular, giving Joshua a direct, personal charge. The causal particle ki ("for", H3588A) introduces the rationale: Joshua, marked by the independent pronoun 'aTah ("you", H0859A) for emphasis, will "bring" (taVi', hiphil) the "sons of Israel" (beNei Yisra'El, construct phrase) into the land. The land is qualified by a relative clause: 'asher-nishBa'ti lahem ("which I swore to them"), where the niphal perfect nishBa'ti marks the oath as prior and completed. The final clause pairs the independent pronoun 'anoKhi ("I", H0595) with the imperfect 'ehYeh ("I will be") and the preposition-plus-suffix 'iMakh ("with you"), closing the verse with a future-oriented statement of presence.

Differences between versions

The LXX and Vulgate both render the subject of the oath explicitly as "the LORD" (Κύριος, Dominus) in the relative clause "which the LORD swore to them" / "which I promised," whereas the Hebrew text has nishBa'ti in first person ("which I swore"), with the speaker identity carried by context rather than restated. The LXX also renders the second imperative pair as Ἀνδρίζου καὶ ἴσχυε ("act like a man and be strong"), differing in nuance from the Hebrew chaZak ve'eMatz ("be strong and be bold").