Deuteronomy 7:17

Summary

Deuteronomy 7:17 presents a hypothetical inner thought: the addressee might say to himself that the nations occupying the land are more numerous than he is, and wonder how he could possibly dispossess them. The verse is structured as a conditional clause introducing a quoted internal speech.

Key words

• to.Mar ("you will say", H0559) — qal imperfect 2ms; combined with ki ("if/that", H3588A), it frames the following words as a hypothetical inner statement rather than an actual utterance.
• l.Va.ve.kha ("your heart", H3824 + H9021) — construct noun with 2ms suffix; the phrase bi-levavkha ("in your heart") is the standard idiom for internal thought or reasoning, not literal speech.
• ra.Bim ("[are] many/great", H7227A) — masculine plural adjective functioning as predicate of the nominal clause, describing ha.go.Yim ha.'E.leh ("these nations", H1471A + H0428).
• mi.Me.ni ("more than me", H4480A + H9030) — preposition min with 1cs suffix, forming a comparative construction: the nations are described as exceeding "me" in number, grammatically singular.
• l.ho.ri.Sha.m ("to dispossess them", H3423H + H9038) — hiphil infinitive of the root meaning "to inherit/possess," here causative: "to cause [them] to not possess," i.e., to dispossess or displace, with 3mp suffix "them."

What the text says

The verse opens with the particle ki (H3588A), which here functions conditionally ("if/when"), governing the imperfect verb to.Mar (H0559, "you will say"). This sets up a reported inner speech introduced by bi-levavkha (H3824, "in your heart"), the standard Hebrew idiom for internal deliberation rather than audible speech. The quoted thought itself is a verbless nominal clause: rabbim ha-goyim ha-elleh mimmenni — literally "many [are] the nations, these, more-than-me." The adjective ra.Bim (H7227A) stands first for emphasis, and the comparison is expressed through the preposition min (H4480A) attached to the 1cs suffix, producing mimmenni ("than me"), grammatically singular despite referring to the speaker as representative of a group.

The second half of the verse shifts to a question introduced by the interrogative 'ei.Khah (H0349B, "how?"), followed by 'u.Khal (H3201, qal imperfect 1cs, "I will be able"). The infinitive l.ho.ri.Sha.m (H3423H) depends on this verb, expressing the action in question: causing the nations to lose possession, built on the root also used for "to inherit" — the hiphil stem reverses the action into a causative sense of removal from possession, with the 3mp suffix -m referring back to "these nations."

Differences between versions

The Hebrew infinitive l.ho.ri.Sha.m (H3423H) denotes causing dispossession, tied etymologically to inheritance/possession. The LXX renders this with ἐξολεθρεῦσαι ("to utterly destroy/exterminate"), and the Vulgate uses delere ("to wipe out/destroy") — both shifting the semantic field from dispossession toward destruction. The Spanish SBLIBRE ("despojarlas," to strip/dispossess) and the English BSB ("drive them out") remain closer to the Hebrew notion of removal from possession rather than annihilation. Additionally, the Hebrew comparative mimmenni is grammatically singular ("more than me"), which the LXX preserves with ἐγώ ("I"), while the BSB shifts to plural ("we are," "we drive out").