Deuteronomy 9:11

Summary

The verse marks the end of a forty-day-and-forty-night period, after which Yehovah gave Moses the two stone tablets, described as "the tablets of the covenant." This is Moses' retrospective narration of receiving the tablets at Sinai/Horeb.

Key words

• va-yeHi ("and it was", H9001+H1961): narrative vav plus the qal verb "to be," a standard formula opening a time-marked episode in Hebrew narrative.
• ketz ("end of", H7093): masculine singular noun in construct state, linking to "forty days," marking the temporal boundary being described.
• natan ("he gave", H5414G): qal perfect, indicating a completed action — the giving took place at a definite past point.
• lucho­t ("tablets of", H3871): feminine plural construct, appearing twice in the verse (lines 16 and 19), each time governing a following noun to form a construct chain.
• berit ("covenant", H1285): feminine singular noun, the final term in the construct chain "tablets of the covenant."

What the text says

The verse opens with the narrative formula va-yeHi ("and it was"), followed by the temporal phrase mi-ketz arba'im yom ve-arba'im laylah ("from the end of forty days and forty nights"). This construction places the giving of the tablets precisely at the close of the forty-day/forty-night period, rather than during it.

The main clause is built around the verb natan ("he gave", H5414G), qal perfect, with Yehovah (H3068) as subject and elai ("to me", H0413+H9030) marking Moses as recipient. The object is introduced by the untranslated marker 'et (H0853) and consists of a double construct chain: shenei luchot ha-avanim ("the two tablets of the stone[s]") followed by a second phrase, luchot ha-berit ("tablets of the covenant"). The repetition of luchot (H3871) in construct form twice in one clause is a feature of Hebrew apposition — the same tablets are described first by their material (stone) and then by their function/content (covenant), without a conjunction joining the two phrases. This apposition is a stylistic trait not preserved as clearly in translations that render both phrases smoothly as a single descriptive clause.

The noun avanim ("stones", H0068G) is plural with the definite article ha- (H9009), specifying "the stones" as a known referent from the surrounding narrative context.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the opening temporal clause with διὰ τεσσεράκοντα ἡμερῶν ("through/after forty days"), using a prepositional phrase rather than reproducing the Hebrew's mi-ketz ("from the end of") construction, though the sense of a completed period is preserved. The Vulgate similarly uses Cumque transissent ("and when had passed"), an explicit subordinate clause emphasizing the passing of time, differing syntactically from the Hebrew's construct-based temporal marker but conveying the same event sequence.