Deuteronomy 19:7

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

Therefore I command you, saying, You shall set apart three cities for you.

World English Bible · Public Domain

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תַּבְדִּ֥יל

bâdal

H914

“to separate”

Verb, Hiphil, Imperfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular

Appears 42× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Genesis 1:4

Full BDB Definition

Origin: a primitive root

TWOT: 203

to divide, separate - (Hiphil) - to divide, separate, sever - to separate, set apart - to make a distinction, difference - to divide into parts - (Niphal) - to separate oneself from (reflexive of 1a2) - to withdraw from - to separate oneself unto - to be separated - to be excluded - to be set apart

About this verse

These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →

9: words
8: distinct lemmas
Pentateuch: section

Shared distinctive vocabulary

תַּבְדִּ֥יל to separate H914 occurs in 40 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

3 verbs
1 noun
1 adjective
1 pronoun
2 prepositions
1 particle

Verb forms

מְצַוְּךָ֖ Piel · Participle Active
לֵאמֹ֑ר Qal · Infinitive Construct
תַּבְדִּ֥יל Hiphil · Imperfect

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 13 words from the Hebrew and 13 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — the same length.

A rough comparison of the two English renderings, which tokenize alike — not a word-level alignment.

Word counts can differ between the Hebrew and the Greek without any difference in meaning — e.g. the Hebrew direct-object marker אֵת has no separate Greek word, and Greek often adds the article ὁ.

In the original languages it is 9 Hebrew tokens and 13 Greek tokens — but the two are counted differently (Hebrew bundles its prefixes and suffixes into one token; the Greek is in lemma form), so that isn’t a like-for-like length.

Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint

The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.

These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.

Hebrew Deuteronomy 19:7 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

עַל כֵּ֛ן אָנֹכִ֥י מְצַוְּךָ֖ לֵאמֹ֑ר שָׁלֹ֥שׁ עָרִ֖ים תַּבְדִּ֥יל לָֽךְ

Therefore I command you, saying, You shall set apart three cities for you.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Deuteronomy 19:7 Septuagint · lemma form

διά οὗτος ἐγώ σύ ἐντέλλομαι ὁ ῥῆμα οὗτος λέγω τρεῖς πόλις διαστέλλω σεαυτοῦ

Therefore I charge you, saying, You shall separate for your self three cities.

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

On this verse, Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary discusses the Septuagint’s reading. Read the note in Commentary ↓

Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) (Public Domain). How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →

Targum (Aramaic paraphrase)

The Targum is the ancient Jewish Aramaic paraphrase of the Hebrew Scriptures — an interpretive translation, not the Hebrew text itself. Onkelos (literal) and Pseudo-Jonathan (expansive) render the Torah, and Jonathan the Prophets. Coverage is partial: where no permissively-licensed English translation exists for a verse, only the Aramaic is shown. This is verse-level text, not a word-by-word alignment to the Hebrew.

Targum Onkelos Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)

עַל כֵּן אֲנָא מְפַקְדָךְ לְמֵימָר תְּלַת קִרְוִין תַּפְרֵשׁ לָךְ

(no public-domain English translation for this verse)

Targum Onkelos — Aramaic: “Onkelos Genesis” (public domain); “Onkelos Exodus” (public domain); “Onkelos Leviticus” (public domain); “Onkelos Numbers” (public domain); “Onkelos Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “J.W. Etheridge. The Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan Ben Uzziel on the Pentateuch. London: Longmans, Green, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)

בְּגִין כֵּן אֲנָא מְפַקֵּיד לְכוֹן יוֹמָא דֵין תְּלַת קִירְוִין תִּפְרְשׁוּן לְכוֹן

Therefore I command you today that you set apart for you three cities.

Targum Pseudo-Jonathan — Aramaic: “Targum Jonathan on Genesis” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Exodus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Leviticus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Numbers” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel, trans. J. W. Etheridge, London, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.

Commentary

Notes on Deuteronomy 19:7 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.

Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne

7. Wherefore I command thee] Cp. Deu_15:11.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John Gill's Exposition

Wherefore I command thee, saying, thou shalt separate three cities for thee. This was to be done immediately, as soon as they were settled in the land of Canaan, and established in the possession of it, the inhabitants being cut off, or driven out, or however subdued.

Wherefore I command thee, saying, thou shalt separate three cities for thee. This was to be done immediately, as soon as they were settled in the land of Canaan, and established in the possession of it, the inhabitants being cut off, or driven out, or however subdued.

Deuteronomy 19:8

deu 19:8

deu 19:8

deu 19:8And if the Lord thy God enlarge thy coast,.... Extend it further than it was upon their first settlement, even carry it as far as the river Euphrates, as in the times of Solomon, Kg1 4:21. Jarchi interprets it of such an enlargement as to give them the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites and Kadmonites:

(as he hath sworn unto thy fathers), and give thee all the land which he promised to give unto thy, fathers: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; see Gen 15:19.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary

At equal, &c. This addition is not in Hebrew (Calmet) or the Septuagint, (Haydock) but is conformable to the regulation given, ver. 3. (Calmet)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Lesson kit

Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.

Deuteronomy, in the Pentateuch, opens this verse with 9 words (8 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is bâdal (“to separate”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

What does “to separate” (bâdal) contribute to the verse as a whole?
Genesis 1:4 shares the word «to separate» with this verse. How do the two illuminate each other?
The translations on this page render this verse differently — a whole-verse word diff, not a word-by-word alignment. What might account for the different wordings?
The verb «מְצַוְּךָ֖» is Piel Participle Active. How does its form color the action?
Reading how The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges and John Gill's Exposition read this verse, where do the two commentators agree and where do they part?

Things to notice

This verse counts 9 Hebrew ↔ 13 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 9 words in this verse.
8 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 9 words in this verse.