Deuteronomy 4:21

Summary

Moses recounts that Yehovah (Yehovah, H3068) became angry with him because of the Israelites, and swore that Moses himself would not cross the Jordan or enter the good land that Yehovah is giving to the people as an inheritance. The verse shifts from Moses's own exclusion ("I") to the addressee's entry ("you") into the land.

Key words

• hit'annef ("he was angry", H0599) — hithpael perfect; the hithpael stem gives the anger a reflexive/intensive coloring, describing a state Yehovah entered into, and the perfect marks it as a completed past event.
• yishava ("he swore", H7650) — niphal, introduced by the narrative vav, which chains it to the prior clause as the next event in sequence ("and then he swore").
• levilti ("not to...", H1115) — a construct noun functioning here as a negative purpose particle before an infinitive; it appears twice (vv. 13, 20 in the word list), each time governing a different infinitive ('avori, "my crossing"; vo', "to go").
• noten ("is about to give", H5414G) — qal participle, masculine singular; participles express ongoing or imminent action rather than a completed one, framing the land-giving as a present/continuing act of Yehovah rather than a past or one-time event.
• nachalah ("an inheritance", H5159) — feminine singular noun, the term describing the mode by which the land is transferred, distinct from simple possession.

What the text says

The sentence opens with va-Yehovah hit'annef-bi ("and Yehovah was angry with me"), placing Yehovah as subject and Moses as the object of the preposition bi ("with me", from H9003+H9030). The cause is marked by 'al-divrei-khem ("on account of the words of you [plural]"), using the construct noun divrei ("words of", H1697M) bound to the plural suffix khem. The narrative continues with va-yishava, introducing Yehovah's oath. The oath's content is expressed through two parallel negative infinitive clauses joined by levilti: first le-vilti 'avori et-ha-Yarden ("not my crossing the Jordan"), where the infinitive 'avori carries a first-person suffix, making the prohibition personal to Moses; then u-levilti vo' 'el ha-'aretz ha-tovah ("and not to enter into the good land"). The final clause shifts addressee: the land is described as one asher Yehovah 'Eloheikha noten lekha nachalah — "which Yehovah your God is giving to you as an inheritance" — using the second-person singular suffix kha, distinguishing the "you" who will inherit the land from the "I" (Moses) who will not enter it.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew 'al-divrei-khem ("because of the words of you") uses the noun divrei ("words of", H1697M); the LXX renders this with a participial phrase, peri tōn legomenōn hyph' touton ("concerning the things said by this one/these"), replacing the noun with a verbal construction. The Hebrew suffix on lekha (H9031) is second-person masculine singular ("to you"), while the Vulgate reads daturus est vobis ("he is about to give to you-plural"), shifting the addressee from singular to plural.