Deuteronomy 9:1

Summary

Moses addresses Israel with a command to listen, announcing that they are about to cross the Jordan river that very day. Their goal is to dispossess nations described as greater and mightier than themselves, whose cities are large and fortified up to the heavens.

Key words

• she.Ma' ("hear", H8085G) — qal imperative, a direct command addressed to Israel collectively as "you" (m.).
• 'o.Ver ("about to pass over", H5674A) — qal participle, expressing an action in progress or imminent, here paired with ha.yYom ("this day") to mark the immediacy of the crossing.
• la.Vo' ("to go", H0935G) and la.Reshet ("to dispossess", H3423H) — two infinitives with the preposition la ("to"), forming a purpose chain: entering in order to dispossess.
• ge.do.Lim ("great", H1419A) and 'a.tzu.Mim ("mighty", H6099) — masculine plural adjectives modifying go.Yim ("nations", H1471A), both compared via mi.Me.ka ("more than you", H4480A + H9031).
• ba.sha.Ma.yim ("in the heavens", H8064) — preposition plus noun, describing the height of the fortified cities without a verb of exaggeration; the construction attaches directly to ge.do.Lot ("large", H1419A) and ve.tzu.Rot ("fortified", H1219).

What the text says

The verse opens with the imperative she.Ma' directed at Yis.ra.'El, followed by the emphatic independent pronoun 'a.Tah ("you"), which reinforces the second-person subject before the participle 'o.Ver. The participial form conveys an action understood as currently unfolding or about to happen, anchored temporally by ha.yYom ("this day"). The direct object marker 'et introduces ha.Yarden ("the Jordan") as the object being crossed, with the definite article on both "day" and "Jordan" marking them as specific, known referents.

The purpose of the crossing is expressed through two chained infinitives with la: la.Vo' ("to go/enter") and la.Reshet ("to dispossess"). This infinitive construct chain in Hebrew expresses sequential purpose without needing a conjunction like "and" between them — entering leads directly to dispossessing. The nations to be dispossessed are qualified by two adjectives, ge.do.Lim and 'a.tzu.Mim, both plural masculine agreeing with go.Yim, and both compared to Israel through the single word mi.Me.ka ("more than you"), which combines the preposition min with a second-person suffix.

The final clause describes the cities using two feminine plural adjectives, ge.do.Lot ("large") and ve.tzu.Rot ("fortified"), agreeing with 'a.Rim ("cities"). The phrase ba.sha.Ma.yim ("in the heavens") is attached directly to these adjectives without an intervening verb such as "reaching" — the Hebrew simply juxtaposes the fortification with the sky.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders ba.sha.Ma.yim as ἕως τοῦ οὐρανοῦ ("up to the heaven"), adding the preposition "up to" (ἕως), which is not explicitly present in the Hebrew ba ("in/at"). The Vulgate similarly reads "usque ad caelum" ("all the way to heaven"), matching the LXX's added sense of reaching a boundary rather than the Hebrew's more static "in the heavens."