Deuteronomy 7:1

Summary

The verse describes a temporal/conditional situation: when Yehovah ("Yehovah", H3068) the God of Israel brings the people into the land they are about to enter and possess, he will clear away many nations from before them. Seven named peoples are listed, then summarized again as "many and mighty," more numerous than Israel itself.

Key words

• ki ("if/when", H3588A) — the conditional/subordinating particle that opens the verse, setting up a temporal-conditional clause rather than a flat statement.
• ye.vi.'akha ("he will bring you", H0935P) — hiphil (causative) imperfect: not "you will go" but "he will cause you to go," placing the agency of entry on Yehovah.
• na.shal ("he will clear away", H5394) — qal sequential (vav-consecutive) perfect, continuing the verbal chain begun by the imperfect; this grammatical form links the "bringing in" and the "clearing away" as one unfolding sequence.
• rishtah ("to possess it", H3423H) — infinitive construct with 3fs suffix referring back to 'aretz ("land", H0776G, feminine), expressing the purpose of the entry.
• rabbim ("many/great", H7227A) — an adjective used twice: once modifying goyim ("nations", H1471A) before the list of seven peoples, and once again after the list, paired with 'atzumim ("mighty", H6099), reinforcing the description.

What the text says

The sentence is built as a conditional/temporal clause (ki + imperfect ye.vi.'akha) followed by a main clause carried by a sequential perfect (na.shal). This verbal chain (imperfect → vav-consecutive perfect) is a standard Hebrew narrative-future structure: the first verb sets the temporal frame ("when he brings you in"), and the second verb, grammatically dependent on it, reports the resulting action ("[then] he will clear away"). The land is introduced with a relative clause ('asher 'atah va' shammah, "where you are about to go"), using a participle (va', H0935G) rather than a finite verb, describing the addressee's ongoing movement toward it.

The seven nations are each marked with the definite article (ha-chitti, ha-girgashi, etc.), using singular gentilic nouns to represent whole peoples collectively. After the list, the text resumes with the cardinal number shiv'ah ("seven", H7651) plus goyim and repeats rabbim, now paired with 'atzumim ("mighty") and mimmekha ("more than you", H4480A + H9031) — a resumptive apposition summarizing the preceding list with an evaluative comment on size and strength relative to the addressee.

Differences between versions

The LXX lists the peoples in the order Hittite, Amorite, Girgashite, Canaanite, Perizzite, Hivite, Jebusite, whereas the Hebrew and the Vulgate both order them Hittite, Girgashite, Amorite, Canaanite, Perizzite, Hivite, Jebusite. Additionally, the LXX renders the first occurrence of rabbim as μεγάλα ("great") and the second occurrence as πολλὰ καὶ ἰσχυρότερα ("many and stronger"), using two different Greek expressions where the Hebrew repeats the same word rabbim both times.