Numbers 35:29

Summary

The verse closes a legal section by declaring that the preceding rulings will function as a permanent legal statute for the community, binding across all generations and in every place they settle.

Key words

• ha.Yu ("they will become", H1961) — qal sequential perfect of the verb "to be"; continues the narrative sequence, marking these rulings as an ongoing state that begins now and persists.
• chu.Kat ("a statute of", H2708) — feminine singular construct noun; the construct form links it directly to mishpat, producing the phrase "statute of judgment," indicating a fixed legal category rather than a one-time ruling.
• mishpat ("judgment", H4941G) — masculine singular noun; denotes a judicial decision or legal ruling, the object that the statute formalizes.
• dorotei- ("generations of", H1755) — feminine plural construct noun with pronominal suffix -khem ("your"); construct form ties the statute's duration to successive generations of the addressees.
• moshevotei- ("dwelling places of", H4186) — feminine plural construct noun with suffix -khem; construct form extends the statute's reach to every location where the addressees reside.

What the text says

The verse opens with the narrative vav on ve-hayu, syntactically linking this declaration to what precedes it as the outcome of that legal material. The demonstrative elleh ("these") points back to the rulings just given, and the sequential perfect verb form frames them as entering into a lasting condition rather than describing a single past event.

The core of the sentence is built on two chained construct phrases: chukkat mishpat ("statute of judgment") and le-dorotei-khem ("to your generations"), followed by a second temporal-spatial extension be-khol moshevotei-khem ("in all your dwelling places"). The construct chains compress what would otherwise require additional prepositions in English, tying the noun "statute" directly to "judgment" as its content, and "generations" and "dwelling places" both carry the second-person plural suffix -khem, anchoring the statute's scope explicitly to the addressed community across time (dorotei-khem) and space (moshevotei-khem).

Differences between versions

The LXX renders chukkat mishpat as dikaiōma kritmatos ("ordinance of judgment"), closely mirroring the Hebrew construct structure. The Vulgate departs more noticeably, rendering the phrase as "sempiterna... et legitima" ("perpetual... and lawful things"), which shifts the emphasis toward permanence and legality as separate qualities rather than preserving the Hebrew's single construct chain "statute of judgment." The Vulgate also omits an explicit equivalent for le-dorotei-khem ("for your generations"), folding the durational sense into "sempiterna" instead.