Deuteronomy 9:5

Summary

The verse denies that Israel's entry into the land is grounded in their own tzedaqah ("righteousness") or yosher levav ("uprightness of heart"). Instead, two causes are given: the rish'ah ("wickedness") of the nations being dispossessed, and the fulfillment of an oath Yehovah swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Key words

• tzid.ka.te.kha ("your righteousness", H6666) — construct noun with 2ms suffix, governed by be ("in"), negated by lo' ("not"), forming the first rejected cause.
• yo.sher le.va.ve.kha ("uprightness of your heart", H3476/H3824) — a construct chain ("uprightness of heart-of-you"), paired with the previous noun by ve ("and"), doubling the negated basis.
• va' ("[one] going/about to go", H0935G) — qal active participle, describing Israel's ongoing action of entering, paired with the infinitive la.re.shet ("to take possession", H3423H).
• rish.'at ha.go.yim ha.'Elleh ("wickedness of these nations", H7564) — construct noun introduced by ki ("for/because", H3588A) and be, giving the actual stated cause.
• mo.ri.Sham ("the one dispossessing them", H3423H) — hiphil participle in construct with suffix -m ("them"), showing Yehovah as causative agent of the nations' expulsion, distinct from the qal root used for Israel's "taking possession."

What the text says

The sentence opens with a double negation structure: lo' be-tzidqatekha u-ve-yosher levavekha ("not in your righteousness and in [the] uprightness of your heart"), both nouns governed by the same preposition be ("in"), before the subject atah ("you") and the participle va' ("going") appear. This word order places the negated causes first, ahead of the subject and verb, giving them syntactic prominence. The infinitive la-reshet ("to take possession," from the qal root H3423) describes the purpose of the movement expressed by va'.

The clause beginning with ki ("for") introduces the contrasting real cause: be-rish'at ha-goyim ha-'elleh ("in the wickedness of these nations"). Here the verb describing Yehovah's action is morisham, a hiphil (causative) participle built from the same root as la-reshet (H3423) — the same verbal root is used once in the qal (Israel "takes possession") and once in the hiphil (Yehovah "causes [the nations] to be dispossessed/removed"). The construct chain morisham mi-panekha ("dispossessing them from before you") shows Yehovah as grammatical agent acting on the nations, with Israel's presence (panekha, "your face/before you") as the reference point.

The final clause, joined by u-le-ma'an ("and so as," H4616), gives a second purpose: hakim et ha-davar ("to carry out the word"), an infinitive construct (hiphil, H6965I) governing the object marker 'et and ha-davar ("the word"), which is further specified by the relative clause asher nishba' Yehovah la-avotekha ("which Yehovah swore to your fathers") — a niphal perfect verb (H7650) naming the oath to le-Avraham, le-Yitzchak, u-le-Ya'akov.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders morisham ("[Yehovah is] dispossessing them") as ἐξολεθρεύσει αὐτοὺς ("he will utterly destroy them"), a stronger verb than the Hebrew root H3423 ("to take possession/dispossess"). The Vulgate paraphrases the wickedness-clause as "illae egerunt impie, introëunte te deletae sunt" ("they acted impiously, and at your entering they were destroyed"), introducing the idea of destruction upon entry, not present as such in the Hebrew participial construction. The LXX also reads τὴν διαθήκην αὐτοῦ ("his covenant") where the Hebrew has ha-davar ("the word", H1697G).