Deuteronomy 9:20

Summary

Moses recounts that Yehovah's anger burned intensely against Aaron, to the point of wanting to destroy him, and that Moses interceded in prayer for Aaron at that same time. The verse pairs divine wrath with human intercession using a chain of narrative verb forms.

Key words

• hit'anaf ("he was angry", H0599) — Hithpael perfect, a reflexive/intensive stem describing Yehovah's anger as an intense inward state, not merely an external act.
• hashmid ("to destroy", H8045) — Hiphil infinitive construct with prefixed le- ("to"), expressing purpose or result: the anger's aim was destruction.
• 'etpallel ("I prayed", H6419) — Hithpael narrative form (vav-consecutive), marking Moses' prayer as the next event in the story sequence, reflexive in stem (a self-directed act of pleading).
• be'ad ("for", H1157) — construct form meaning "on behalf of," specifying Aaron as the object of Moses' intercession.
• ha-hiv' ("that", H1931 with article H9009) — feminine pronoun agreeing with 'et ("time", H6256, feminine noun), forming the phrase "at that time."

What the text says

The verse opens with u-ve-Aharon ("and concerning/with Aaron"), placing Aaron immediately as the object of divine displeasure before the verb hit'anaf appears. The subject Yehovah (H3068) follows the verb, a common Hebrew word order (verb-subject) that keeps focus on the emotional intensity, reinforced by me'od ("exceedingly", H3966). The Hiphil infinitive le-hashmido ("to destroy him") attaches a pronominal suffix directly to the infinitive, compactly expressing both the causative destructive intent and its object (Aaron) in one word.

The second half shifts to Moses' action through the narrative vav on va-'etpallel ("and I prayed"), a standard storytelling device linking this clause sequentially to what precedes. The adverb gam ("also", H1571) signals that this prayer parallels an earlier intercession (implied by context outside this verse), extending the same prayerful act to include Aaron specifically, marked by be'ad Aharon ("for Aaron"). The closing phrase ba-'et ha-hiv' ("at that time") uses the feminine demonstrative pronoun hiv' to agree grammatically with the feminine noun 'et ("time"), anchoring the prayer to the specific moment already established in the narrative.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the clause without an explicit subject noun for "Yehovah," using only the verb ἐθυμώθη ("he was angered"), leaving the subject to be inferred from context, whereas the Hebrew names Yehovah directly. The Vulgate adds the verb "voluit" ("he wanted"), an interpretive expansion not present in the Hebrew infinitive construction le-hashmido, which itself contains no separate verb of "wanting" but expresses purpose through the infinitive form alone.