Deuteronomy 5:2

Summary

The verse states that Yehovah, identified as "our God," made a covenant with the speakers ("us") at the location Horeb. The sentence is a simple declarative clause reporting a completed past action.

Key words

• Yahweh ("Yehovah", H3068G) — the divine proper name, functioning as the subject of the verb.
• 'eloHeinu ("God", H0430G) — plural construct noun with 1st person plural suffix nu ("our"), literally "God of us," in apposition to the divine name.
• karat ("he made", H3772H) — Qal perfect 3rd masculine singular, indicating a completed action performed by the subject Yahweh; the verb karat is the standard verb used for "cutting/making" a covenant.
• berit ("a covenant", H1285) — feminine singular noun, the direct object of karat, without the definite article, meaning "a covenant" rather than "the covenant."
• be-Chorev ("at Horeb", H2722) — preposition be ("at", H9003) plus the place name, marking the location where the action occurred.

What the text says

The clause follows a standard Hebrew verb-subject-object word order for narrative perfect statements: subject (Yahweh 'eloheinu, "Yehovah our God"), verb (karat, "he made/cut"), prepositional phrase ('immanu, "with us"), object (berit, "a covenant"), and locative phrase (be-Chorev, "at Horeb"). The verb karat (H3772H) is in the Qal perfect, marking the covenant-making as a completed, single past event rather than an ongoing or repeated one.

The noun 'eloheinu (H0430G) is grammatically plural in form (common for the Hebrew word for "God") but functions as singular in meaning, joined to the 1st person plural suffix nu ("our"), so that the divine name Yahweh and the phrase "our God" together form one subject unit: "Yehovah our God." The object berit (H1285) lacks the definite article in the Hebrew, presenting the covenant as something newly constituted at that moment rather than referring back to a previously mentioned covenant. The preposition 'immanu ("with us", combining H5973A and the suffix H9035) marks the recipients of the covenant-making action, distinguishing them from a possible indirect object marked differently.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew text uses 1st person plural forms throughout — 'eloheinu ("our God") and 'immanu ("with us") — placing the speaker(s) as participants in the covenant. The LXX (Swete) instead renders these with 2nd person plural forms: ὁ θεὸς ὑμῶν ("your God") and πρὸς ὑμᾶς ("to you" / "with you"), shifting the grammatical person from "our/us" to "your/you." The Vulgate follows the Hebrew pattern with Deus noster ("our God") and nobiscum ("with us"), matching the 1st person plural forms found in the Hebrew text.