Deuteronomy 6:1

Summary

Deuteronomy 6:1 introduces a set of instructions — a commandment, statutes, and judgments — that Yehovah has commanded, to be taught and then practiced in the land the people are about to enter and take possession of. The verse functions as a heading, linking legal terminology to a specific purpose: teaching followed by action in a particular territory.

Key words

• Zot ("this", H2063) — singular demonstrative pronoun that opens the verse; grammatically it agrees with the singular noun that follows but stands syntactically at the head of a list that also includes plural nouns.
• mitzVah ("commandment", H4687) — feminine singular noun; despite standing alongside plural terms, it is grammatically singular, suggesting it functions as a comprehensive category-heading over the plural terms that follow.
• tzivVah ("he has commanded", H6680) — Piel (intensive) perfect verb, third person masculine singular; marks a completed act of commanding, with Yehovah as subject.
• lelamMed ("to teach", H3925G) — Piel infinitive with prefixed preposition le; expresses purpose ("in order to teach") and is grammatically unmarked for person, leaving the subject of the teaching action implicit from context.
• leroshTah ("to take possession of it", H3423H) — Qal infinitive with prepositional le and a feminine object suffix referring back to aretz ("land", H0776G); expresses the ultimate goal of entering the land.

What the text says

The verse opens with the singular demonstrative Zot ("this") followed immediately by the singular noun mitzVah ("the commandment"), and only then by two plural nouns, chuKim ("statutes", H2706G) and mishpaTim ("judgments", H4941G). The grammatical mismatch between the singular opening term and the plural nouns that follow is a feature of the Hebrew syntax: the singular mitzVah appears to head or summarize the plural terms rather than being fully parallel to them.

The relative clause asher tzivVah Yehovah eloHeiKhem ("which Yehovah your God has commanded") uses the Piel perfect tzivVah, marking a single completed act of commanding. This is followed by two purpose infinitives in sequence: lelamMed etKhem ("to teach you") and la'aSot ("to do/observe"), both dependent on the same verb of commanding. Neither infinitive is marked for grammatical person, so the Hebrew text itself does not specify who performs the teaching — this is inferred from the larger narrative context of Moses speaking to the people.

The clause ends with a description of the land: asher attem ovRim shamMah leroshTah — "which you are crossing over there, to take possession of it" — using the participle ovRim ("crossing/passing over", H5674A) to indicate an action in progress, and the infinitive leroshTah with a feminine object suffix referring back to aretz ("land").

Differences between versions

The Hebrew reads eloHei-khem ("your God," plural "you"), while the LXX has ὁ θεὸς ἡμῶν ("our God"), a divergence in pronoun reference. The Vulgate renders the teaching-infinitive explicitly as ut docerem ("that I might teach"), a first-person subjunctive, and the BSB similarly adds "instructed me to teach you" — both making explicit an agent (Moses) that the Hebrew infinitive lelamMed leaves grammatically unspecified.