Deuteronomy 4:49

Summary

The verse closes the geographic description of the territory conquered in Transjordan, listing the Arabah plain on the eastern side of the Jordan, extending to the "Sea of the Arabah," beneath the slopes of Pisgah. It functions as the final boundary marker for the land given to the tribes settled east of the Jordan.

Key words

• khol ("all", H3605) — masculine singular construct, opening the phrase as "all of…", governing the following noun ha'Aravah.
• 'Aravah ("Arabah", H6160G) — a proper geographic name (the depression running along the Jordan valley), appearing twice, once as the region itself and once in the construct phrase "sea of the Arabah."
• 'Ever ("side of", H5676G) — masculine singular construct, meaning "the region across/beyond," linking to hayarden ("the Jordan") to specify the eastern side.
• mizrachah ("eastward", H4217H) — the noun "east" with the directional he suffix (H9011), indicating motion or orientation "toward" the east rather than a static location.
• 'ashdot ("slopes of", H0798) — feminine plural construct, describing the descending terrain ("slopes/foothills") in construct with hapisgah ("the Pisgah").

What the text says

The sentence is built almost entirely from construct chains, a typical feature of Hebrew geographic description. Khol ("all") stands in construct with ha'Aravah ("the Arabah"), then 'Ever hayarden ("the side of the Jordan") further specifies location, and mizrachah, carrying the directional he, gives the orientation "eastward" without needing a separate preposition. The second half repeats the pattern: yam ha'Aravah ("sea of the Arabah") as a construct pair, followed by tachat 'ashdot hapisgah ("under the slopes of the Pisgah"), itself a double construct — 'ashdot construct to hapisgah, and the whole phrase governed by the preposition tachat ("under"). The repeated construct structure creates a chain of nested specifications, moving from the general region (Arabah) to increasingly precise landmarks (Jordan, sea, Pisgah), a style common in boundary-list texts.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders 'ashdot hapisgah as a transliterated place name, Ἀσηδὼθ ("Asedoth"), followed by τὴν λαξευτήν ("the hewn/cut one"), differing from the Hebrew's descriptive construct "slopes of Pisgah," and it does not explicitly reproduce the phrase yam ha'Aravah ("sea of the Arabah") as a separate clause. The Vulgate translates yam ha'Aravah as "mare solitudinis" ("sea of solitude"), an interpretive rendering of 'Aravah rather than a transliteration, and renders 'ashdot as "radices" ("roots/foothills"), adding "montis" ("of the mountain") before "Phasga," a clarification not present as a separate word in the Hebrew text.