Deuteronomy 4:22

Summary

Moses tells the Israelites that he himself will die in the land east of the Jordan and will not cross over into Canaan, while the people will cross the Jordan and take possession of "this good land." The verse contrasts Moses' fate with that of the nation using parallel participial constructions.

Key words

• met ("about to die", H4191) — qal participle, marking an imminent or ongoing state rather than a simple past/future verb; expresses "I am one who is dying/about to die."
• 'eineni ("I am not", built on H0369 + 1st person suffix) — the existential negative particle 'ayin with a pronominal suffix, a standard Hebrew way to negate a participle: literally "there-is-not-of-me," functioning as "I am not."
• 'over ("about to pass over", H5674A) — qal participle, masculine singular, agreeing with Moses ("I").
• 'ovrim ("about to pass over", H5674A) — same root, but masculine plural, agreeing with "you all" (the people); the singular/plural contrast visually mirrors the fate-contrast in the sentence.
• virishtem ("and you will take possession", H3423H) — vav-conjunction + sequential perfect, continuing the action begun by 'ovrim: crossing leads to possessing, expressed as a chained sequence of events rather than two separate statements.

What the text says

The verse is built on two parallel clauses, each anchored by a participle: Moses "is dying" (met) and Moses "is not crossing" ('eineni 'over), set against the people who "are crossing" ('atem 'ovrim) and consequently "will possess" (virishtem). The participles do not indicate simple present tense but portray these as unfolding, near-certain realities — Moses' death and non-crossing are treated grammatically the same way as the people's crossing, as ongoing/imminent conditions rather than isolated future events. The sequential perfect virishtem attaches the "possessing" as the next link in a chain following "crossing," a common Hebrew narrative technique to show one action naturally following another.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate opens with "Ecce morior" ("Behold, I die"), introducing ecce ("behold") where the Hebrew has the subordinating particle ki ("for"/"because", H3588A); this shifts the logical connector into an exclamation. The LXX Swete text renders the final phrase as τὴν γῆν τὴν αὐτὴν ("the same land"), which lacks a word corresponding to tovah ("good", H2896A) found in the Hebrew ha'aretz hatovah hazzot ("this good land"); the Vulgate's "terram egregiam" ("excellent land") and the Hebrew's "good" land agree in sense, while the LXX wording here diverges by omitting the qualifier "good."