Numbers 15:2

Summary

Numbers 15:2 opens a divine instruction to Moses, directing him to speak to the Israelites about a future situation: their entry into the land that God is in the process of giving them. The verse sets up a conditional/temporal clause ("when you come into the land...") that introduces further legal material.

Key words

• daBer ("speak", H1696G) — Piel imperative, giving the command an intensive, directive force: Moses is to actively deliver a message, not merely mention it.
• 'amarta ("you will say", H0559) — Qal sequential perfect, continuing the imperative chain begun by daBer; grammatically it functions as a second command ("and you shall say") rather than a simple future.
• tavo'u ("you will go/come", H0935G) — Qal imperfect, plural, expressing an action not yet completed, here functioning within the ki ("that/if", H3588A) clause to mark a future or conditional entry into the land.
• moshevoteikhem ("dwelling places of you", H4186) — feminine plural construct with 2nd person plural suffix, forming a construct chain with 'eretz ("land of", H0776G): literally "land of your dwelling-places," describing the land's function as future habitation.
• noten ("giving", H5414G) — Qal participle, masculine singular, expressing an ongoing or imminent action ("the one giving"), used here to describe God's continuous act of giving the land rather than a completed past transfer.

What the text says

The verse is built as a chain of two imperatives directed at Moses: daBer ("speak") followed by the sequential perfect 'amarta ("and you shall say"), a common Biblical Hebrew construction where a perfect verb continues the force of a preceding imperative. This creates a two-step instruction: Moses is told both to speak and to relay a specific message to "the sons of Israel" (benei Yisra'el, H1121G/H3478).

The message itself begins with the particle ki (H3588A), which can function as "that" or "if/when," introducing the imperfect verb tavo'u ("you will come," H0935G). This sets up a temporal or conditional frame: entry into "the land of your dwelling-places" ('eretz moshevoteikhem), a construct phrase pairing "land" with "dwelling-places" plus a possessive suffix, describing the land specifically in terms of future habitation rather than as a generic territory. The clause closes with the relative 'asher ("which," H0834A) and the participle noten ("giving," H5414G) paired with the independent pronoun 'ani ("I," H0589), emphasizing the ongoing nature of the divine act of giving the land, as opposed to a completed transaction.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate renders the construct chain as "terram habitationis vestrae" ("the land of your habitation"), closely mirroring the Hebrew 'eretz moshevoteikhem. The provided LXX text ("εἰς τὴν γῆν... ὑμῶν") appears to lack an explicit Greek equivalent for moshevoteikhem ("dwelling places"), moving directly from "the land" to "your," without a separate term for habitation. The BSB paraphrases the same construct phrase as "a home," a functional rather than literal rendering of "land of your dwelling-places."