Deuteronomy 33:8

Summary

This verse belongs to Moses' blessing on the tribe of Levi. Within that blessing, the text shifts to a direct address to Yehovah, stating that his Thummim and Urim belong to "your faithful one," the man whom Yehovah tested at Massah and contended with at the waters of Meribah.

Key words

• tumeikha ("your Thummim", H8550) — masculine plural construct with 2ms suffix; grammatically dependent on an implied "you" (Yehovah), marking these objects as belonging to the addressee.
• 'ureikha ("your Urim", H0224) — same construct/suffix pattern as tumeikha, paired with it as a fixed word-pair referring to the priestly objects.
• chasidekha ("your faithful one", H2623) — adjective in construct form with 2ms suffix; describes the "man" ('ish, H0376G) as belonging to Yehovah, i.e., "your faithful/godly one."
• nissito ("you tested him", H5254G) — piel perfect, 2ms subject with 3ms object suffix; the piel stem intensifies the verb's basic sense of testing/proving.
• teriveHu ("you contended with him", H7378) — qal imperfect, 2ms subject with 3ms object suffix; despite the imperfect form (normally ongoing/future), it here functions as a past-tense narrative form parallel to nissito.

What the text says

The verse opens with the narrative frame u-le-Levi 'amar ("and to Levi he said", H0559, qal perfect), attributing the following words to a speaker — contextually Moses. What follows is addressed in second person: the suffixes on tumeikha, 'ureikha, and chasidekha all carry "your," which within this blessing functions as an address to Yehovah, not to Levi. The clause states that the Thummim and Urim "belong to" (le-, H9005) "your faithful man" ('ish chasidekha), meaning the priestly line is described as belonging to Yehovah, and Yehovah's Thummim/Urim are entrusted to this "faithful one."

The relative clause 'asher nissito... teriveHu ("whom you tested... you contended with him") uses two verbs with 2ms subject and 3ms object suffixes, both referring to Yehovah testing/contending with the "faithful one" at the place names Massah (H4532) and Meribah (H4809G). The verb teriveHu is grammatically an imperfect form but is used here with past-tense force, paired with the perfect nissito — a feature of Hebrew poetic/narrative style where imperfect forms can carry preterite meaning.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders tumeikha we-'ureikha with an added imperative, "Δότε Λευεὶ" ("Give to Levi"), which is not explicit in the Hebrew text, and translates the terms Thummim/Urim interpretively as δήλους ("manifestations/clarities") and ἀλήθειαν ("truth") rather than transliterating them. The Vulgate similarly interprets rather than transliterates, rendering tumeikha as "Perfectio tua" ("your perfection") and 'ureikha as "doctrina tua" ("your doctrine"), where the Hebrew simply has the proper technical terms Thummim and Urim.