Deuteronomy 33:1

Summary

The verse introduces the blessing that Moses pronounced over the people of Israel shortly before his death. It functions as a superscription, identifying Moses as "the man of God" and setting the temporal frame ("before his death") for the blessing that follows in the chapter.

Key words

• be.ra.Khah ("blessing", H1293) — feminine singular noun with definite article ha (H9009), naming the object introduced by the demonstrative Zot ("this", H2063).
• be.Rakh ("he blessed", H1288) — Piel perfect verb, third person masculine singular; the Piel stem conveys an intensive or formal act of blessing, and the perfect aspect marks it as a completed action.
• 'ish ("man of", H0376G) — masculine singular noun in construct state, linked to 'E.lo.Him ("God", H0430G) to form the title "man of God."
• be.Nei ("sons/people of", H1121G) — masculine plural construct noun, linked to Yis.ra.'El ("Israel", H3478), marked by the direct object marker 'et (H0853) as the recipients of the blessing.
• mo.T...o ("his death", H4194 + H9023) — construct noun with pronominal suffix "his," forming the phrase li.f.Nei mo.To ("before his death"), which places the blessing in time relative to Moses' life.

What the text says

The verse opens with the conjunction ve ("and", H9002) attached to the demonstrative Zot ("this", H2063), followed by the article-marked noun ha.be.ra.Khah ("the blessing", H9009 + H1293). This construction — "and this [is] the blessing" — functions as a formal introduction, presenting what follows as a named unit of speech. The relative particle 'a.Sher ("which", H0834A) then connects this heading to the verb be.Rakh ("he blessed", H1288), a Piel perfect form. The Piel stem here intensifies the basic sense of blessing, and the perfect aspect frames the blessing as a completed act from the narrator's vantage point, even though the blessing itself is about to be quoted.

The subject of the verb is mo.Sheh ("Moses", H4872), immediately qualified by the construct phrase 'ish ha.'E.lo.Him ("the man of God", H0376G + H0430G) — a title rather than a name, built through construct-state grammar rather than a separate adjective. The direct object marker 'et (H0853) signals that be.Nei Yis.ra.'El ("the sons of Israel", H1121G + H3478) — another construct phrase — receives the action of blessing. Finally, the temporal clause li.f.Nei mo.To ("before his death", H6440G + H4194 + H9023) uses a construct chain culminating in a pronominal suffix ("his") to anchor the entire blessing event just prior to Moses' death, without narrating the death itself at this point.

Differences between versions

No substantive divergences appear between the Hebrew, the LXX, and the Vulgate in this verse; all three preserve the same structure — demonstrative introduction, the title "man of God," and the temporal clause "before his death."