Deuteronomy 31:28

Summary

Moses commands that the elders and officers of the tribes be gathered before him so that he may speak certain words directly to them, and he intends to call heaven and earth as witnesses against them. The verse combines an imperative command with two first-person purpose clauses expressing intended future actions.

Key words

• hak.Hi.lu ("assemble", H6950) — Hiphil (causative) imperative, plural: a command to make others gather, addressed to more than one person.
• zik.Nei ("elders of", H2205G) — masculine plural construct, linking to "tribes," indicating the leadership figures specifically tied to each tribal group.
• 'a.da.be.Rah ("let me speak", H1696G) — Piel (intensive) form in a volitional/purpose sense: not simple speaking but deliberate, emphatic address.
• 'a.'I.dah ("I may call as witnesses", H5749B) — Hiphil (causative) form: causing heaven and earth to function as witnesses, not merely observing them.
• 'A.retz ("earth", H0776G) — feminine singular, paired with sha.Ma.yim ("heavens", H8064) as the two entities invoked together as witnesses.

What the text says

The verse opens with the imperative hak.Hi.lu ("assemble", H6950), a Hiphil form that carries causative force — the command is not simply "gather" but "cause to gather," implying the addressee must actively bring the elders and officers together. The direct object marker 'et (H0853) appears three times in the verse (before "all the elders," before "these words," and before "the heavens"), each time marking the following noun phrase as the grammatical object without itself carrying independent meaning.

The construct chain kol-zik.nei shiv.tei.khem ("all the elders of your tribes") stacks three nouns in construct relationship, a typical Hebrew way of expressing possession or belonging without a separate word for "of." Similarly, sho.te.rei.khem ("your officials") continues the list of those to be assembled, joined by the conjunction ve (H9002).

The two verbs 'a.da.be.Rah ("let me speak", H1696G) and 'a.'I.dah ("I may call as witnesses", H5749B) are both first-person forms expressing Moses' intended action once the assembly is gathered. The first, a Piel form, suggests intensive or deliberate speech — addressing "in their ears" (be'oznei.hem, using the dual-form noun for "ears"). The second, a Hiphil, causatively "makes to witness," meaning Moses actively enlists the heavens and the earth in this role rather than passively observing them as witnesses.

Differences between versions

The LXX specifies three groups — φυλάρχους ("tribe-rulers"), κριτὰς ("judges"), and γραμματοεισαγωγεῖς ("scribes/registrars") — where the Hebrew names two: zik.Nei ("elders", H2205G) and sho.te.rei ("officials", H7860). The Vulgate similarly reads "majores natu" ("elders by birth") and "doctores" ("teachers"), a rendering distinct from both the Hebrew and the LXX categories. The Hebrew verb 'a.'I.dah ("I may call as witnesses", H5749B) is rendered in the Vulgate as "invocabo" ("I will invoke/call upon"), while the LXX uses διαμαρτύρομαι ("I solemnly testify/protest"), each conveying a slightly different shade of the act of summoning heaven and earth.