Numbers 32:23

Summary

The verse presents a conditional warning: if the addressees do not act as promised, they will have sinned against Yehovah, and a command follows to recognize that their sin will find them out. The Hebrew structure moves from a conditional clause to a declarative statement introduced by hinneh ("there!", H2009), then to an imperative demanding awareness.

Key words

• ta.'a.Su ("you will do", H6213A) — qal imperfect, 2nd person masculine plural, marking the verb of the conditional protasis; carries a paragoraphic nun (H9013) that adds emphasis to the verb form.
• cha.ta.Tem ("you have sinned", H2398) — qal perfect, 2nd person masculine plural; the perfect aspect presents the sin as a completed, settled fact rather than a future possibility, despite being triggered by a conditional "if."
• de.'U ("know", H3045) — qal imperative, 2nd person masculine plural; shifts the sentence from description to direct command, demanding cognitive recognition.
• cha.tat.Khem ("sin of you", H2403B) — feminine singular noun in construct form with the suffix Khem ("your", H9026), forming "your sin" as the grammatical subject of the following relative clause.
• tim.Tza' ("it will find", H4672) — qal imperfect, 3rd person feminine singular, agreeing with the feminine noun chattat ("sin"); the sin itself is the grammatical subject that will "find" them.

What the text says

The verse opens with the conditional particle 'im ("if", H0518A) negated by lo' ("not", H3808), setting up a hypothetical: "if you will not do thus." The apodosis begins with hinneh ("there!", H2009), an interjection that draws attention to what follows as a vivid, immediate reality — not a distant future consequence but something already true: chataTem ("you have sinned", H2398) is in the perfect aspect, describing completed action even though it stands as the result of an unfulfilled condition. This grammatical choice presents the sin against Yehovah (H3068G) as already accomplished in the scenario being described, rather than as a mere future possibility.

The second half shifts register through the imperative de'U ("know", H3045), commanding direct cognitive engagement. The object of this knowledge is chattatkhem ("your sin", H2403B + H9026), a construct-suffix combination functioning as the subject of the following relative clause introduced by 'asher ("that", H0834A). Notably, the sin itself — not an external agent — is the grammatical subject of timtza' ("it will find", H4672), a qal imperfect feminine verb agreeing with the feminine noun chattat. The sin is personified as an active, seeking entity that will locate the addressees, marked by the direct object marker 'et (H0853) plus the suffix khem ("you", H9036).

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the Hebrew perfect chataTem ("you have sinned") with a future middle form (ἁμαρτησεσθε, "you will sin"), shifting the aspect from completed to prospective. The Vulgate similarly uses a subjunctive-future construction ("peccetis," "you may sin"), softening the immediacy the Hebrew perfect conveys through hinneh. The BSB and RV1909 preserve something closer to the Hebrew's declarative certainty ("you will certainly sin," "habréis pecado"), while the SBLIBRE explicitly adds "recibirán su castigo" ("they will receive their punishment"), an interpretive expansion not present in the Hebrew text's wording, which states only that the sin "will find" (timtza') them.