Numbers 32:22

Summary

This verse continues the conditional oath of the Reubenites and Gadites to Moses: once the land is subdued before Yehovah, they may return home and will be considered clear of their obligation toward Yehovah and toward Israel. The verse closes by stating that the land in question will then belong to them as a possession, again "before Yehovah."

Key words

• nikhbeshah ("it will be subdued", H3533) — niphal (passive) sequential perfect; the land itself is the grammatical subject of a passive action, marking the conquest as a completed condition rather than an action the speakers perform directly.
• teshuvu ("you will return", H7725) — qal imperfect, expressing the future/ongoing action that follows once the condition of v.22a is met.
• nekiyyim ("free", H5355) — masculine plural adjective describing the tribes' status; paired twice with the preposition min ("from") — me-YHWH and mi-Yisrael — indicating a state of being cleared from obligation toward both parties.
• achuzah ("a possession", H0272) — feminine singular noun, the term used for the land grant that becomes theirs once the condition is fulfilled.
• lifnei ("before", H6440) — construct plural noun functioning as a preposition; it frames the verse at both the beginning (subduing the land "before Yehovah") and the end (holding the land "before Yehovah"), creating a structural inclusio around the whole condition.

What the text says

The verse is built as a conditional chain using sequential perfects (ve-nikhbeshah, vihyitem, ve-hayetah) that follow the initial niphal verb, each introduced by the narrative vav. This chain expresses a logical sequence: first the subjugation of the land, then the return, then the state of being nekiyyim ("free") from both YHWH and Yisrael, and finally the possession of the land. The repetition of lifnei YHWH at the start and end of the verse forms an envelope structure, framing the entire transaction — military and territorial — as occurring under the direct oversight of Yehovah.

The double use of min with nekiyyim ("free from Yehovah and from Israel") expresses a single legal status of being cleared of obligation, viewed from two relational angles — one toward the deity, one toward the national community — rather than two separate conditions.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate renders the final clause as "obtinebitis regiones quas vultis, coram Domino" ("you will obtain the regions you wish, before the Lord"), introducing a notion of choice of territory ("quas vultis") that is absent from the Hebrew, which simply states the land "will belong to you as a possession" (la-khem la-achuzah) without reference to preference. The LXX's ἀθῷοι ("innocent/guiltless") for nekiyyim emphasizes legal innocence, while the Hebrew adjective more broadly denotes being "clear" or "free" of an obligation.