Deuteronomy 33:17

Summary

The verse continues Moses' blessing on Joseph, describing him metaphorically through the image of an ox with the strength of a wild ox's horns. These horns are then explicitly identified as the peoples of Ephraim and Manasseh, expressed in terms of large numeric units ("ten-thousands" and "thousands").

Key words

• bekhor ("firstborn of", H1060) — construct noun opening the verse, linking "firstborn" to "his ox" in a genitive chain describing majesty by comparison to a young bull.
• hadar ("splendor", H1926) — absolute noun functioning as the predicate: the splendor "belongs to him" (lo, H9033), the possessive marker.
• qarnei re'em ("horns of a wild ox", H7161A + H7214) — construct chain; qarnei is dual/plural construct, meaning the two horns of the wild ox are the referent's own horns (qarnav, "his horns").
• yenaggach ("he will gore", H5055) — Piel imperfect, an intensive verbal stem indicating repeated or forceful goring action, projected into future/ongoing time.
• rivvot / alfei ("ten-thousands of" / "thousands of", H7233 / H0505G) — both construct plural nouns, numeric designations attached to Ephraim and Manasseh respectively, forming parallel clauses introduced by vehem ("and they", H1992).

What the text says

The verse opens with a construct chain, bekhor shoro ("firstborn of his ox"), followed by hadar lo ("splendor [belongs] to him") — a nominal sentence without a verb, typical of Hebrew poetic description. The comparison shifts to qarnei re'em qarnav ("horns of a wild ox are his horns"), again a construct-based equational clause identifying the referent's horns with those of a re'em (H7214), an animal here treated as having two horns (dual form qarnei).

The verb yenaggach (H5055), in the Piel stem, marks intensified action — "he will gore" — with the object ammim ("peoples", H5971A) and the adverb yachdav ("together", H3162B), extending the action to afsei-aretz ("ends of the earth", H0657A + H0776G). The final two clauses use vehem ("and they", H1992) followed by construct plurals rivvot Efrayim ("ten-thousands of Ephraim") and alfei Menasheh ("thousands of Manasseh"), directly equating the horns' power with these two groups.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew re'em (H7214), paired with the dual qarnei ("horns," plural), describes a two-horned wild ox. The LXX renders this as monokerōtos ("of a one-horned creature," i.e., unicorn), and the Vulgate similarly uses rhinocerotis ("of a rhinoceros"), both singular-horned images that diverge from the Hebrew's dual-horn construction. This LXX/Vulgate rendering is reflected in RV1909's "unicornio," while BSB and SBLIBRE render re'em as "wild ox," aligning more closely with the Hebrew dual-horn sense. Additionally, the Vulgate's verb ventilabit ("will scatter/fan") differs from the Hebrew yenaggach ("will gore," H5055), which the LXX preserves more closely with keratiei ("will gore with horns").