Exodus 13:11
וְהָיָה כִּֽי־יְבִֽאֲךָ יְהוָה אֶל־אֶרֶץ הַֽכְּנַעֲנִי כַּאֲשֶׁר נִשְׁבַּע לְךָ וְלַֽאֲבֹתֶיךָ וּנְתָנָהּ לָֽךְ׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
וְהָיָ֞ה כִּֽי־יְבִֽאֲךָ֤ יְהוָה֙ אֶל־אֶ֣רֶץ הַֽכְּנַעֲנִ֔י כַּאֲשֶׁ֛ר נִשְׁבַּ֥ע לְךָ֖ וְלַֽאֲבֹתֶ֑יךָ וּנְתָנָ֖הּ לָֽךְ׃
Καὶ ἔσται ἔσται ὡς ἂν εἰσαγάγῃ σε κύριος ὁ θεός σου εἰς τὴν γῆν τῶν Χαναναίων, ὃν τρόπον ὤμοσεν τοῖς πατράσιν σου, καὶ δώσει σοι αὐτήν,
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
Cumque introduxerit te Dominus in terram Chananæi, sicut juravit tibi et patribus tuis, et dederit tibi eam:
Cuando Yehová los introduzca en la tierra de los cananeos, tal como se lo juró a ustedes y a sus antepasados, y se la entregue,
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Y cuando Jehová te hubiere metido en la tierra del Cananeo, como te ha jurado á ti y á tus padres, y cuando te la hubiere dado,
And after the LORD brings you into the land of the Canaanites and gives it to you, as He swore to you and your fathers,
✦ What the text says
Summary
The verse opens a conditional-temporal clause describing a future event: when Yehovah brings the addressee into the land of the Canaanites, as he swore to the addressee and to his ancestors, he will give it to him. The Hebrew marks this as a sequence of two linked future actions (bringing in, then giving) framed by an oath already sworn.
Key words
- ve.hayah ("it will be", H1961) — qal sequential perfect; opens the clause as a narrative pivot meaning "and it will happen that...", setting up the condition that follows.
- yevi'akha ("he will bring you", H0935P) — hiphil imperfect, causative form of the verb "to come/enter"; expresses that Yehovah causes the entry, not that the people enter on their own.
- nishba' ("he swore", H7650) — niphal perfect of the oath-verb; grammatically passive/reflexive in form but functions as an active "he swore," referring back to an already-completed act.
- avoteikha ("your ancestors", H0001G) — plural construct of "father," here extended to "ancestors," linked to the addressee by the suffix -kha.
- u.netanah ("and he will give it", H5414G) — qal sequential perfect with feminine object suffix -ah ("her/it"), referring back to 'eretz ("land"), grammatically feminine; closes the sequence begun by ve.hayah.
What the text says
The sentence structure runs as a chain of sequential perfects (ve.hayah ... u.netanah) surrounding a central imperfect (yevi'akha) and a completed-action verb (nishba'). This chaining is a common Biblical Hebrew pattern for describing a future sequence of events tied to a prior condition: "and it will be, when he brings you... as he swore... that he will give it to you." The ki (H3588A) functions here as "when/if," introducing the temporal-conditional frame rather than a simple causal "because."
The feminine suffix on netanah ("it/her") explicitly agrees with 'eretz ("land"), a feminine noun, confirming that the land itself — not any other referent — is the object being given. The oath clause (ka'asher nishba' lekha ve-la'avoteikha, "as he swore to you and to your ancestors") is placed between the bringing-in and giving-actions in the Hebrew, separating them, whereas the giving is stated only at the very end of the verse.
Differences between versions
The Hebrew places "he will give it to you" (u.netanah lakh) after the oath clause, as a separate final action. The LXX and Vulgate (followed by BSB) instead group "brings you... and gives it to you" together before mentioning the oath ("as He swore to you and your fathers"), altering the sequence of clauses without changing the overall content. The LXX text as given also shows a doubled Greek verb, ἔσται ἔσται ("it will be, it will be"), where the Hebrew has only one instance of ve.hayah.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.