Numbers 10:9
וְכִֽי־תָבֹאוּ מִלְחָמָה בְּאַרְצְכֶם עַל־הַצַּר הַצֹּרֵר אֶתְכֶם וַהֲרֵעֹתֶם בַּחֲצֹצְרוֹת וֲנִזְכַּרְתֶּם לִפְנֵי יְהוָה אֱלֹֽהֵיכֶם וְנוֹשַׁעְתֶּם מֵאֹיְבֵיכֶֽם׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
וְכִֽי־תָבֹ֨אוּ מִלְחָמָ֜ה בְּאַרְצְכֶ֗ם עַל־הַצַּר֙ הַצֹּרֵ֣ר אֶתְכֶ֔ם וַהֲרֵעֹתֶ֖ם בַּחֲצֹצְר֑וֹת וֲנִזְכַּרְתֶּ֗ם לִפְנֵי֙ יְהוָ֣ה אֱלֹֽהֵיכֶ֔ם וְנוֹשַׁעְתֶּ֖ם מֵאֹיְבֵיכֶֽם׃
ἐὰν; δὲ ἐξέλθητε εἰς πόλεμον ἐν τῇ γῇ ὑμῶν πρὸς τοὺς ὑπεναντίους τοὺς ἀνθεστηκότας ὑμῖν, καὶ σημανεῖτε ταῖς σάλπιγξιν, καὶ ἀναμνησθήσεσθε ἔναντι Κυρίου, καὶ διασωθήσεσθε ἀπὸ τῶν ἐχθρῶν ὑμῶν.
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
Si exieritis ad bellum de terra vestra contra hostes qui dimicant adversum vos, clangetis ululantibus tubis, et erit recordatio vestri coram Domino Deo vestro, ut eruamini de manibus inimicorum vestrorum.
Cuando vayan a la guerra en su propia tierra contra el enemigo que los oprime, tocarán la alarma con las trompetas. Entonces serán recordados delante de Yehová, su Dios, y serán salvados de sus enemigos.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Y cuando viniereis á la guerra en vuestra tierra contra el enemigo que os molestare, tocaréis alarma con las trompetas: y seréis en memoria delante de Jehová vuestro Dios, y seréis salvos de vuestros enemigos.
When you enter into battle in your land against an adversary who attacks you, sound short blasts on the trumpets, and you will be remembered before the LORD your God and saved from your enemies.
✦ What the text says
Summary
The verse describes a conditional scenario: if the Israelites go to war in their own land against an enemy who oppresses them, they are to sound the trumpets. This trumpet blast leads to being "remembered" before Yehovah ("Yehovah", H3068G) and consequently rescued from their enemies.
Key words
- ta.Vo.'u ("you will go", H0935G) — qal imperfect, 2nd person masculine plural, marking the protasis (the "if" clause) as an open, future-oriented condition rather than a completed event.
- ha.Tzar / tzo.Rer ("the foe" / "opposes", H6862C / H6887D) — the noun tzar and the participle tzorer share the same root, creating a wordplay: literally "the adversary who adversarially opposes you." The participle form marks ongoing, characteristic action.
- ha.re.'o.Tem ("you will give an alarm", H7321) — hiphil (causative) sequential perfect. The hiphil stem indicates causing a sound to happen (making the trumpets blast), and the sequential perfect continues the logical chain begun by the conditional verb.
- niz.kar.Tem ("you will be remembered", H2142) — niphal (passive) sequential perfect. The passive voice means the subject (the people) undergoes the action of being remembered, rather than performing it.
- no.sha'.Tem ("you will be delivered", H3467) — niphal sequential perfect, again passive, paralleling nizkartem in both stem and form, presenting deliverance as something received rather than achieved.
What the text says
The Hebrew sentence is built as a conditional chain: the particle khi ("if", H3588A) introduces the protasis with an imperfect verb (tavo'u), and the apodosis unfolds through three consecutive verbs marked by the sequential perfect construction (va- + perfect): hare'otem, nizkartem, noshatem. This grammatical chaining ("and you will sound... and you will be remembered... and you will be delivered") presents the three actions as a single continuous consequence flowing from the initial condition, rather than as separate independent statements.
The phrase ha-tzar ha-tzorer ("the foe who opposes") uses a noun and a participle from the same root (tzarar, "to oppress/be hostile"), producing a repetition in Hebrew that emphasizes the hostile nature of the enemy through sound and form, not merely through added description.
The two final verbs, nizkartem and noshatem, are both niphal (passive) forms: the people do not remember themselves or save themselves — they "are remembered" and "are delivered," with the grammar placing them as recipients of the action rather than its agents.
Differences between versions
The Hebrew wordplay ha-tzar ha-tzorer (noun and participle from the same root) is rendered in the LXX with two distinct Greek participles, τοὺς ὑπεναντίους τοὺς ἀνθεστηκότας ("the adversaries, the ones standing against"), which conveys hostility but does not reproduce the root-repetition of the Hebrew. The Vulgate similarly uses two different terms, hostes qui dimicant ("enemies who fight"), also without echoing the Hebrew paronomasia.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.