Deuteronomy 9:6

Summary

Moses tells the people that they must know that Yehovah their God is giving them the good land not because of their own righteousness, but despite the fact that they are, in the text's own words, a "stiff-necked people." The verse frames the gift of the land as unrelated to the people's moral standing.

Key words

• ya.da'.Ta ("you will know", H3045) — qal sequential perfect, continuing the narrative sequence begun earlier in the chapter; it functions almost as an imperative of realization ("know!").
• tzid.ka.te.kha ("your righteousness", H6666 + H9021) — feminine singular noun in construct with the 2ms suffix, governed by the negated preposition lo' be- ("not by/in"), denying that righteousness is the basis of the gift.
• no.Ten ("[is] about to give", H5414G) — qal participle, masculine singular, expressing an ongoing or imminent action ("the one giving"), describing Yehovah's present/continuing act of giving the land.
• rish.Ta.h ("to take possession of it", H3423H + H9034) — qal infinitive with 3fs suffix referring back to ha'Aretz ("the land"), expressing purpose: the land is given "to possess it."
• ke.sheh-'O.ref ("stiff of neck", H7186 + H6203) — adjective in construct with a noun, forming the fixed expression describing the people's character, used predicatively with 'Atah ("you", H0859A).

What the text says

The sentence opens with the sequential verb ya.da'.Ta ("you will know"), which continues a chain of instructions from the preceding verses, introducing a subordinate clause with ki ("that/if", H3588A). The core negation is built with lo' be-tzidkatekha — "not in/by your righteousness" — placing the negated causal phrase immediately before the subject Yehovah 'Eloheikha ("Yehovah your God"). The verb noten is a participle, not a finite past or future form, which in Hebrew narrative can convey an action in progress or about to occur; it presents the giving of the land as a continuous divine act rather than a single completed event.

The object of the giving, ha'Aretz ha.Tovah ha.Zot ("this good land"), is marked by the direct object marker 'et, followed by a chain of two definite adjectives ("the good," "this") that pile up on the noun "land," emphasizing its desirability. The infinitive le.rish.Tah ("to possess it") expresses the purpose of the gift. The final clause restates the reason with a second ki ("for"), introducing the predicate 'am-qesheh-'oref ("a stiff-necked people") applied to the addressee 'Atah ("you"), a construct phrase literally meaning "people of hard/stiff neck."

Differences between versions

The LXX adds σήμερον ("today"), a temporal marker absent in the Hebrew text given here. The LXX also renders the singular tzid.ka.te.kha ("your righteousness") with the plural τὰς δικαιοσύνας σου ("your righteous deeds/acts of righteousness"), where the Hebrew has a singular abstract noun. The Vulgate's justitias tuas similarly uses a plural form for the same Hebrew singular noun.