Deuteronomy 34:3

Summary

This verse continues the list of territories that Moses views from the mountain, naming the Negev region, the plain of the Jericho valley (identified as the city of palm trees), extending as far as Zoar. It is a geographical enumeration using construct chains to link places to their descriptive features.

Key words

• Negev ("Negev", H5045G) — proper name marked with the definite article ha (H9009), preceded by the object marker 'Et (H0853), indicating it is a direct object of the verb of seeing from the preceding context.
• kikkar ("district", H3603G) — feminine singular noun, also definite and marked as object; denotes a plain or circular region.
• biq'at ("valley of", H1237G) — feminine singular noun in construct state, meaning it must be followed by another noun to complete its sense ("valley of X").
• Yerecho ("Jericho", H3405H) — proper name completing the construct chain begun by biq'at, yielding "valley of Jericho."
• temarim ("palm trees", H5899) — masculine plural noun, following the construct noun 'ir ("city of", H5899) to form "city of palm trees," a descriptive epithet for Jericho.

What the text says

The verse is structured as a series of geographical objects, each introduced by the conjunction ve ("and", H9002) and the direct object marker 'Et (H0853), showing that these places are all objects of a verb located earlier in the sentence (outside this verse, referring to Moses' viewing of the land). The pattern 'Et ha-X repeats for Negev and kikkar, marking both as definite direct objects.

The phrase biq'at Yerecho ("valley of Jericho") uses the construct state of biq'at (H1237G), a feminine singular noun that cannot stand alone grammatically — it requires the following noun Yerecho to complete its meaning, producing a single compound expression "valley of Jericho." Similarly, 'ir ha-temarim ("city of the palm trees") uses 'ir (H5899) in construct form followed by the definite plural noun temarim (H5899), functioning as an epithet or alternate description of Jericho itself, not a separate location. The final phrase 'ad Tzo'ar ("to Zoar", H5704 + H6820) uses the preposition 'ad to mark the terminal point of the described geographical span, from the Jordan valley region to the town of Zoar.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders ha-Negev (H5045G, "the Negev") as τὴν ἔρημον ("the desert/wilderness"), while the Vulgate uses australem partem ("the southern part"), both interpreting the proper geographical name Negev according to its general meaning ("south" or "dry region") rather than transliterating it as a place name, unlike the Hebrew text which treats it as a specific named region.