Deuteronomy 31:7

Summary

Moses summons Joshua and, before all Israel, commands him to be strong and courageous. He explains that Joshua will accompany the people into the land Yehovah swore to give to their ancestors, and that Joshua himself will be the one to allot it to them as an inheritance.

Key words

• chazak ("be strong", H2388) — qal imperative, second person masculine singular; a direct command addressed to Joshua.
• 'emats ("be bold", H0553) — qal imperative paired with chazak via the conjunction ve ("and", H9002), forming a double command.
• tavo' ("you will go", H0935) — qal imperfect, expressing an action understood as certain to occur, introduced by the causal/explanatory particle ki ("for", H3588).
• nishba' ("he swore", H7650) — niphal perfect; the niphal stem here carries a reflexive/oath-related sense, referring to a completed act by Yehovah.
• tanchilennah ("you will give as an inheritance", H5157) — hiphil imperfect with third-person feminine singular suffix ("her/it," referring to the land), causative in force: Joshua will cause the land to be inherited.

What the text says

The verse is built on two narrative verbs joined by the narrative va: va-yiqra' ("and he summoned", H7121) and va-yomer ("and he said", H0559), the standard chain marking sequential past action. Moses' speech to Joshua is set explicitly le'einei kol Yisrael ("to the eyes of all Israel", H5869/H3605), a construct phrase meaning the act was performed publicly, in the sight of the entire people, not privately.

The core command is the pair of imperatives chazak ve-'emats ("be strong and be bold"), both second-person masculine singular forms addressed directly to Joshua. The clause that follows, introduced by ki ("for/that", H3588) and the pronoun 'atah ("you", H0859), shifts to the qal imperfect tavo' ("you will go"), describing Joshua's future entry "with this people" ('et ha'am ha-zeh) into "the land" (ha'aretz). The land is further specified by the relative clause 'asher nishba' Yehovah la-avotam ("which Yehovah swore to their fathers"), using the niphal perfect nishba', denoting a completed oath. The infinitive latet ("to give", H5414) explains the content of that oath. The final clause repeats 'atah ("you") and uses the hiphil imperfect tanchilennah, with its feminine suffix pointing back to "the land," indicating that Joshua will be the one to distribute or allot it to the people, expressed by the object marker otam ("them", H0853).

Differences between versions

The Hebrew reads la-avotam ("to their fathers", referring to Israel's ancestors), while the LXX (Swete) has τοῖς πατράσιν ἡμῶν ("to our fathers"), a first-person possessive differing from the Hebrew third-person suffix. The Vulgate follows the Hebrew sense with patribus eorum ("their fathers"). The LXX also renders the Hebrew le'einei kol Yisrael ("to the eyes of all Israel") as ἔναντι παντὸς Ἰσραήλ ("before all Israel"), a functionally similar but not identical idiom.