Numbers 33:51

Summary

This verse opens a new divine command to Moses, instructing him to speak to the Israelites about their upcoming crossing of the Jordan River into the land of Canaan. It functions as an introductory formula setting up the instructions that follow in the subsequent verses.

Key words

• daBer ("speak", H1696G) — piel imperative, an intensive command form directing Moses to deliver a message.
• 'amarTa ("you will say", H0559) — qal sequential perfect, continuing the chain of action begun by the imperative; grammatically it carries the force of a further command ("and you shall say").
• ki ("if"/"that", H3588A) — a conditional or subordinating particle introducing the circumstance under which the following instructions apply.
• 'oveRim ("[are] about to pass over", H5674A) — qal participle, masculine plural, describing an action in progress or imminent, attached to the pronoun "you" ('atem).
• 'Eretz ("[the] land of", H0776G) — feminine singular construct noun, linking directly to Kena'an ("Canaan") to form the phrase "land of Canaan."

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built as a two-part command: daBer ("speak") followed by the sequential 'amarTa ("and you shall say"), a common construction in legal/instructional material where Moses is told both to address the people and to deliver a specific message. The content of that message begins with ki ("if" or "that"), which introduces the condition or circumstance: 'atem 'oveRim ("you [plural] are crossing/about to cross"). The use of the participle 'oveRim rather than a finite verb conveys an action viewed as ongoing or imminent, rather than a simple future event — the crossing is presented as a state the people are entering into or already engaged in, not merely a single completed act.

The phrase 'et-haYarden marks "the Jordan" as the direct object of the crossing, using the object marker 'et (untranslated) before the definite article and noun. The destination is given by 'el-'Eretz Kena'an, where 'Eretz stands in construct with Kena'an, forming the fixed phrase "land of Canaan."

Differences between versions

The Hebrew ki ("if"/"that") is rendered temporally in the Vulgate as "Quando" ("when") and similarly in RV1909 and BSB as "when," rather than as a strict conditional "if." The Hebrew participle 'oveRim ("are passing over" or "about to pass over") is rendered by the LXX as a present indicative (diabainete, "you are crossing"), and by the Vulgate with a future-perfect construction ("transieritis... intrantes," "you shall have crossed, entering"), reflecting differing ways of capturing the participle's aspect of ongoing or imminent action in target languages that lack an equivalent form.