Deuteronomy 9:13

Summary

Yehovah speaks to Moses, declaring that he has observed "this people" and characterizing them as qesheh-'oref ("stiff of neck", H7186/H6203) — a people described as stubborn or unyielding. The verse is framed as direct divine speech introduced by a narrative formula.

Key words

• va-yo'mer ("and he said", H0559) — qal narrative form; the vav-consecutive links this utterance directly to the preceding narrative sequence, marking it as the next event in the story.
• ra'iti ("I have seen", H7200G) — qal perfect, first person; the completed aspect frames the observation as an accomplished fact, not an ongoing process.
• ha-'am ha-zeh ("this people", H5971A + H2088) — the definite article on 'am plus the demonstrative zeh ("this", H2088) points specifically at the people in question, marked also by the object marker 'et (H0853).
• qesheh-'oref ("stiff of neck", H7186 + H6203) — a construct adjective phrase: qesheh ("stiff of", H7186) governs 'oref ("neck", H6203), forming a fixed descriptive expression applied to the people.
• hu' ("it/he", H1931) — the independent pronoun placed at the end of the clause, reinforcing the identification of the subject with the predicate 'am qesheh-'oref.

What the text says

The verse opens with the narrative vav on va-yo'mer ("and he said", H0559), attaching this speech act to the ongoing account. The speaker is identified as Yehovah (H3068G), and the recipient is marked by 'elai ("to me", H0413 + suffix), followed by the infinitive le'mor ("saying", H0559) — a common Hebrew construction that introduces reported speech.

The content of the speech begins with ra'iti ("I have seen", H7200G), a perfect-tense verb indicating a completed act of perception, directed at 'et-ha-'am ha-zeh ("this people", H5971A), where the object marker 'et (H0853) signals the direct object and the demonstrative ha-zeh ("this", H2088) specifies the referent already known from context.

The second half of the verse is introduced by ve-hinneh ("and behold", H2009), an interjection that draws attention to what follows as a vivid or emphatic observation. The description 'am-qesheh-'oref ("a people stiff of neck", H5971A + H7186 + H6203) uses a construct chain: qesheh ("stiff of") governs 'oref ("neck"), producing an idiomatic descriptive phrase. The clause closes with the independent pronoun hu' ("it", H1931), which in Hebrew syntax serves to affirm or underscore the identification between "this people" and the qualifying phrase "stiff of neck."

Differences between versions

The LXX renders le'mor with an expanded phrase, "λελάληκα πρὸς σὲ ἅπαξ καὶ δίς" ("I have spoken to you once and twice"), which has no equivalent in the Hebrew text provided, where only le'mor ("saying", H0559) appears without this additional clause. The Vulgate's Cerno ("I perceive/discern") corresponds to ra'iti ("I have seen", H7200G) but shifts the verb into a present-tense rendering rather than reflecting the Hebrew perfect aspect.