Deuteronomy 5:3

Summary

Deuteronomy 5:3 asserts that the covenant in question was not made with the previous generation ("our fathers") but with the generation currently present, described as "all of us" who are "alive" "here" "today." The verse uses layered pronominal emphasis to stress the immediacy and personal inclusion of the speaking generation.

Key words

• karat ("he made/cut", H3772) — qal perfect; the verb conventionally used for covenant-making, here marking a completed act by Yehovah.
• 'avoteinu ("our ancestors", H0001 + suffix) — feminine-listed construct noun with 1st person plural suffix, naming the excluded party.
• 'anachnu ("we", H0587) — independent personal pronoun; grammatically redundant since person is already marked by suffixes, but placed here for emphasis.
• kulanu ("all of us", H3605 + suffix) — construct noun "all of" plus 1st person plural suffix, quantifying the group inclusively.
• chayim ("alive", H2416A) — masculine plural adjective, describing the physical state of the present generation as a defining condition.

What the text says

The verse is built on a negative-correlative structure: lo' ("not", H3808) governs the first clause, contrasted with ki ("for/but", H3588A) introducing the second. This creates a "not X, but Y" frame: the covenant (berit, H1285, marked definite and demonstrative with ha-...ha-zot, "this") was not made 'et-'avoteinu ("with our ancestors") but 'itanu ("with us", H0854 + suffix H9035).

What stands out grammatically is the stacking of first-person markers in the second half of the verse: the preposition 'itanu ("with us") is followed by the independent pronoun 'anachnu ("we"), then by the demonstrative 'eleh ("these", H0428), the adverb poh ("here", H6311), the temporal phrase ha-yom ("the day/today", H3117), and finally kulanu chayim ("all of us, alive"). Hebrew normally does not need a separate pronoun when the verb or suffix already indicates person, so the explicit 'anachnu is emphatic, reinforcing the identity of the group as physically present and living, in contrast to the deceased or absent "fathers" of the first clause.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew and the Vulgate use first-person forms throughout ("our fathers," "with us," per nostris and nobiscum in the Vulgate). The LXX (Swete text) instead uses second-person forms — τοῖς πατράσιν ὑμῶν ("your fathers"), πρὸς ὑμᾶς ("to you"), ὑμεῖς ("you") — shifting the verse from first-person inclusive speech to a second-person address, a divergence in grammatical person not present in the Hebrew or Vulgate.