Deuteronomy 4:44

Summary

The verse introduces a legal text by identifying it as "the law" that Moses formally presented to the people of Israel. It functions as a superscription or heading, marking the transition to a new section of legal material.

Key words

• Zot ("this", H2063) — feminine demonstrative particle pointing forward to ha-Torah, establishing the sentence as an identification formula ("this is...").
• Torah ("law", H8451) — feminine singular noun with the definite article ha (H9009), naming the specific body of instruction being introduced.
• sam ("he set", H7760A) — qal perfect of the verb, third person masculine singular, describing Moses' completed action of placing or establishing the law.
• fnei ("before", H6440G) — masculine plural construct noun, literally "face of," here functioning with the preposition li (H9005) to mean "before" or "in front of."
• bnei ("sons of / people of", H1121G) — masculine plural construct noun linking to Yisra'El (H3478), forming the phrase "the people of Israel."

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is a nominal identification clause built around the demonstrative Zot ("this") and the noun phrase ha-Torah ("the law"). This construction — demonstrative plus definite noun — creates a formula of the type "this is X," commonly used in Biblical Hebrew to introduce or head a section of text. The relative clause that follows, introduced by 'asher ("which," H0834A), specifies which law is meant: the one that Moses sam ("set," H7760A), a qal perfect verb indicating a completed past action.

The verb sam carries the basic sense of "placing" or "setting," and its object relationship is expressed through the following prepositional phrase li-fnei bnei Yisra'El — literally "to the face of the sons of Israel," a common Hebrew idiom meaning "before" or "in the presence of" the people of Israel. The construct chain fnei bnei Yisra'El stacks two construct nouns (fnei, "face of," and bnei, "sons of") to build the compound expression "before the people of Israel." The verse thus functions grammatically as a heading, using demonstrative and perfect-tense verb forms to mark a transition into subsequent legal content.