Deuteronomy 4:38

Summary

This verse continues a purpose clause (dependent on the previous verse) describing Yehovah's action toward Israel: dispossessing large and powerful nations from before them, bringing them into the land, and giving it to them as an inheritance, a situation the text says holds "as this day."

Key words

• ho.Rish ("dispossess", H3423) — hiphil infinitive, causative form: not merely "to leave" but "to cause to leave/dispossess," marking the first of three linked purpose-infinitives in the verse.
• 'a.tzu.Mim ("mighty", H6099) — masculine plural adjective paired with ge.do.Lim ("great", H1419A) to describe the nations being dispossessed, both in the comparative construction "more than you."
• mi.pa.Nei.kha ("from before you", H6440G + suffix) — construct noun with pronominal suffix, forming a spatial idiom ("from your face") reinforcing mimmekha ("more than you") in describing the nations' relation to the addressee.
• ha.vi.'a.kha ("bring you in", H0935P) — hiphil infinitive with 2nd person suffix, second purpose-infinitive, causative "cause you to enter."
• na.cha.Lah ("an inheritance", H5159) — feminine singular noun functioning adverbially/appositionally with 'ar.Tzam ("their land", H0776G), specifying the manner or status in which the land is given.

What the text says

The verse is built on a chain of three infinitives with prefixed le-/la-: le.horish ("to dispossess"), la.havi.'akha ("to bring you in"), and la.tet ("to give"). Each infinitive expresses a purpose or result continuing from the preceding verse, and together they form a sequence: dispossession of nations, entry into the land, and the giving of that land. The phrase mimmekha mippaneikha stacks two prepositional expressions — "more than you" (comparative, describing the nations' size/strength relative to the addressee) and "from before you" (spatial, describing their removal from the addressee's path). This layering intensifies the description without being fully reproducible in translation, since English renders both with a single comparative "than you" or drops the second phrase into "before you."

The object 'et-'ar.Tzam ("their land") is followed by nachalah ("inheritance") without a connecting preposition, a construction in which the second noun specifies the capacity or manner in which the land is given — "as an inheritance" — rather than being a separate object. The closing phrase ka.yom ha.zeh ("as this day," H3117L + H2088) anchors the entire action in a stated present reference point.

Differences between versions

The LXX uses ἐξολεθρεῦσαι ("to utterly destroy") where the Hebrew ho.Rish (H3423) means "to dispossess/drive out," a stronger destructive sense not present in the Hebrew verb itself. The Vulgate's deleret ("that he might destroy/wipe out") similarly intensifies beyond "dispossess." For nachalah ("inheritance"), the LXX uses the infinitive κληρονομεῖν ("to inherit"), while the Vulgate has in possessionem ("into possession"), both shifting the Hebrew's nominal "as an inheritance" into slightly different grammatical framings.