Deuteronomy 2:17

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

that Yahweh spoke to me, saying,

World English Bible · Public Domain

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Word by word

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וַיְדַבֵּ֥ר

dâbar

H1696

“and · to speak”

Conjunction + Verb, Piel, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular

Appears 1,144× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Genesis 8:15

Full BDB Definition

Origin: a primitive root

TWOT: 399

to speak, declare, converse, command, promise, warn, threaten, sing - (Qal) to speak - (Niphal) to speak with one another, talk - (Piel) - to speak - to promise - (Pual) to be spoken - (Hithpael) to speak - (Hiphil) to lead away, put to flight

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 →

4: words
4: distinct lemmas
Pentateuch: section

Grammatical profile

2 verbs
1 noun
1 preposition

Verb forms

וַיְדַבֵּ֥ר Piel · Sequential Imperfect
לֵאמֹֽר Qal · Infinitive Construct

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 6 words from the Hebrew and 7 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — closely comparable.

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 4 Hebrew tokens and 6 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 2:17 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וַיְדַבֵּ֥ר יְהוָ֖ה אֵלַ֥י לֵאמֹֽר

that Yahweh spoke to me, saying,

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Deuteronomy 2:17 Septuagint · lemma form

καί λαλέω κύριος πρός ἐγώ λέγω

that the Lord spoke to me, saying,

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

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)

וּמַלִיל יְיָ עִמִי לְמֵימָר

(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)

וּמַלֵיל יְיָ עִמִּי לְמֵימָר

the Lord spake with me, saying:

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 2:17 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 →

John Gill's Exposition

That the Lord spoke unto me,.... At the brook Zered, having passed that, or at Dibongad, which was their next station:

saying; as follows.

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

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 4 words (4 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is dâbar (“to speak”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

How does “to speak” (dâbar) shape what this verse is saying?
These translations render this verse differently. What is at stake in choosing one wording over another?
«וַיְדַבֵּ֥ר» is a Piel Sequential Imperfect verb. How does that grammatical form shape the action described?

Things to notice

This verse counts 4 Hebrew ↔ 6 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 4 words in this verse.
4 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 4 words in this verse.