Deuteronomy 3:22

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

You shall not fear them; for Yahweh your God, he it is who fights for you.

World English Bible · Public Domain

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הַנִּלְחָ֥ם

lâcham

H3898

“the · fighting”

Particle, Definite Article + Verb, Niphal, Participle Active, Masculine, Singular, Absolute

Appears 177× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Exodus 1:10

Full BDB Definition

Origin: a primitive root

TWOT: 1104 , 1105

to fight, do battle, make war - (Qal) to fight, do battle - (Niphal) to engage in battle, wage war - (Qal) to eat, use as food

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 →

8: words
7: distinct lemmas
Pentateuch: section

Grammatical profile

2 verbs
2 nouns
1 pronoun
1 preposition
1 conjunction
1 particle

Verb forms

תְִּירָא֑וּם Qal · Imperfect
הַנִּלְחָ֥ם Niphal · Participle Active

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 16 words from the Hebrew and 17 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 8 Hebrew tokens and 11 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.

Cross-references

Topical passages linked to Deuteronomy 3:22 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Exodus 14:14 Yahweh will fight for you, and you shall be still."
Deuteronomy 20:4 for Yahweh your God is he who goes with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.
Deuteronomy 1:30 Yahweh your God who goes before you, he will fight for you, according to all that he did for you in Egypt before your eyes,
Joshua 10:42 All these kings and their land did Joshua take at one time, because Yahweh, the God of Israel, fought for Israel.
2 Chronicles 20:17 You shall not need to fight in this [battle]: set yourselves, stand you still, and see the salvation of Yahweh with you, O Judah and Jerusalem; don't be afraid, nor be dismayed: tomorrow go out against them: for Yahweh is with you.
2 Chronicles 20:29 The fear of God was on all the kingdoms of the countries, when they heard that Yahweh fought against the enemies of Israel.
Isaiah 43:1–2 But now thus says Yahweh who created you, Jacob, and he who formed you, Israel: Don't be afraid, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name, you are mine.
Psalms 44:3 For they didn't get the land in possession by their own sword, Neither did their own arm save them; But your right hand, and your arm, and the light of your face, Because you were favorable to them.

Numbers 21:34 Yahweh said to Moses, Don't fear him: for I have delivered him into your hand, and all his people, and his land; and you shall do to him as you did to Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived at Heshbon.
2 Chronicles 13:12 Behold, God is with us at our head, and his priests with the trumpets of alarm to sound an alarm against you. Children of Israel, don't you fight against Yahweh, the God of your fathers; for you shall not prosper.

Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).

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 3:22 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

לֹ֖א תְִּירָא֑וּם כִּ֚י יְהוָ֣ה אֱלֹֽהֵיכֶ֔ם ה֖וּא הַנִּלְחָ֥ם לָכֶֽם

You shall not fear them; for Yahweh your God, he it is who fights for you.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Deuteronomy 3:22 Septuagint · lemma form

οὐ φοβέω ὅτι κύριος ὁ θεός ἐγώ αὐτός πολεμέω περί σύ

You⌃ shall not be afraid of them, because the Lord our God himself shall fight for you.

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

On this verse, The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 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)

לָא תִדְחֲלוּן מִנְהוֹן אֲרֵי יְיָ אֱלָהָכוֹן מֵימְרֵהּ מְגִיחַ לְכוֹן: ססס

(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)

לָא תְדַחֲלוּן מִנְהוֹן אֲרוּם מֵימְרָא דַיְיָ אֱלָהָכוֹן מְגִיחַ לְכוֹן

Fear them not, for the Word of the Lord your God fighteth for you.

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 3:22 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

22. Ye shall not fear them] We may either take this Pl. as intended to comprise all the people with Joshua; or read, with Sam., some codd. of the LXX, and the Syriac, thou shall not fear them. Which was the original it is impossible to say. All the versions have the Pl. in the last clause (LXX, B our God), but to take it as therefore a late addition borrowed from Deu_1:30 (Steuern.) is somewhat pedantic; the change from Sg. to Pl. is here very natural.

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

And I besought the Lord at that time,.... When he was told he should die, and Joshua should succeed him; or when the two kings were slain, and their kingdoms conquered; this being the beginning, pledge, and earnest of what God had promised to do for the people of Israel; Moses was very desirous of living to see the work completed, and therefore sought the Lord by prayer and supplication:

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.

The Pulpit Commentary

The "he" here is emphatic; as God himself would fight for them, why should they be afraid?

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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 8 words (7 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is lâcham (“to fight”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

The word lâcham carries the sense “to fight.” How does it shape the verse?
Exodus 14:14 shares this passage’s theme. 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 «תְִּירָא֑וּם» is Qal Imperfect. 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 8 Hebrew ↔ 11 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 9 words in this verse.
7 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 8 words in this verse.