Deuteronomy 9:23

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

When Yahweh sent you from Kadesh-barnea, saying, Go up and possess the land which I have given you; then you rebelled against the commandment of Yahweh your God, and you didn't believe him, nor listen to his voice.

World English Bible · Public Domain

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מִקָּדֵ֤שׁ

Qâdêsh Barnêaʻ

H6947

“from · Kadesh-barnea”

Preposition + Noun, Proper

Appears 20× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Numbers 32:8

Full BDB Definition

Origin: from the same as H6946 and an otherwise unused word (apparently compounded of a correspondent to H1251 and a derivative of H5128 ) meaning desert of a fugitive

TWOT: None

Kadesh-barnea = "holy" - a city in the extreme south of Judah - same as 'Kedesh' and 'Kadesh'

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 →

24: words
17: distinct lemmas
Pentateuch: section

Notable vocabulary

The rarest word here is מִקָּדֵ֤שׁ Kadesh-barnea H6947 — appearing just 20 times in the whole Hebrew Bible.

Shared distinctive vocabulary

מִקָּדֵ֤שׁ Kadesh-barnea H6947 occurs in 10 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

8 verbs
8 nouns
2 prepositions
6 particles

Verb forms

וּבִשְׁלֹ֨חַ Qal · Infinitive Construct
לֵאמֹ֔ר Qal · Infinitive Construct
עֲלוּ֙ Qal · Imperative
וּרְשׁ֣וּ Qal · Imperative
נָתַ֖תִּי Qal · Perfect
וַתַּמְר֗וּ Hiphil · Sequential Imperfect
הֶֽאֱמַנְתֶּם֙ Hiphil · Perfect
שְׁמַעְתֶּ֖ם Qal · Perfect

Repetition

Words recur within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:

יְהוָ֜ה LORD H3068 ×2
מִקָּדֵ֤שׁ Kadesh-barnea H6947 ×2
וְלֹ֤א not H3808 ×2

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 38 words from the Hebrew and 42 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 24 Hebrew tokens and 36 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 9:23 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Psalms 106:24–25 Yes, they despised the pleasant land. They didn't believe his word,
Hebrews 4:2 For indeed we have had good news preached to us, even as they also did, but the word they heard didn't profit them, because it wasn't mixed with faith by those who heard.
Psalms 78:22 Because they didn't believe in God, And didn't trust in his salvation.
Isaiah 63:10 But they rebelled, and grieved his holy Spirit: therefore he was turned to be their enemy, [and] himself fought against them.
Numbers 13:1–14:4 Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,
Numbers 14:10–41 But all the congregation bade stone them with stones. The glory of Yahweh appeared in the tent of meeting to all the children of Israel.
Deuteronomy 1:19–33 We traveled from Horeb, and went through all that great and terrible wilderness which you saw, by the way to the hill-country of the Amorites, as Yahweh our God commanded us; and we came to Kadesh-barnea.
Hebrews 3:18–19 To whom did he swear that they wouldn't enter into his rest, but to those who were disobedient?

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 9:23 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וּבִשְׁלֹ֨חַ יְהוָ֜ה אֶתְכֶ֗ם מִקָּדֵ֤שׁ בַּרְנֵ֨עַ֙ לֵאמֹ֔ר עֲלוּ֙ וּרְשׁ֣וּ אֶת הָאָ֔רֶץ אֲשֶׁ֥ר נָתַ֖תִּי לָכֶ֑ם וַתַּמְר֗וּ אֶת פִּ֤י יְהוָה֙ אֱלֹ֣הֵיכֶ֔ם וְלֹ֤א הֶֽאֱמַנְתֶּם֙ ל֔וֹ וְלֹ֥א שְׁמַעְתֶּ֖ם בְּקֹלֽוֹ

When Yahweh sent you from Kadesh-barnea, saying, Go up and possess the land which I have given you; then you rebelled against the commandment of Yahweh your God, and you didn't believe him, nor listen to his voice.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Deuteronomy 9:23 Septuagint · lemma form

καί ὅτε ἐκ ἀποστέλλω κύριος σύ ἐκ καδης βαρνη λέγω ἀναβαίνω καί κληρονομέω ὁ γῆ ὅς δίδωμι σύ καί ἀπειθέω ὁ ῥῆμα κύριος ὁ θεός σύ καί οὐ πιστεύω αὐτός καί οὐ εἰςἀκούω ὁ φωνή αὐτός

And when the Lord sent you forth from Cades Barne, saying, Go up and inherit the land which I give to you, then you⌃ disobeyed the word of the Lord your God, and believed him not, and listened not to his voice.

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)

וְכַד שְׁלַח יְיָ יָתְכוֹן מֵרְקַם גֵיאָה לְמֵימַר סְקוֹ וְאַחֲסִינוּ יָת אַרְעָא דִי יְהָבִית לְכוֹן וְסָרֶבְתּוּן עַל גְזֵרַת מֵימְרָא דַיְיָ אֱלָהֲכוֹן וְלָא הֵימַנְתּוּן לֵהּ וְלָא קַבֶּלְתּוּן לְמֵימְרֵהּ

(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)

וּבִזְמַן דְּשָׁלַח יְיָ יַתְכוֹן מֵרְקָם גֵּעָא לְמֵימָר סוּקוּ וְאַחֲסִינוּ יַת אַרְעָא דִיהָבִית לְכוֹן וְסָרֵיבְתּוּן עַל מֵימְרָא דַיְיָ אֱלָהָכוֹן וְלָא הֵימַנְתּוּן לֵיהּ וְלָא קַבֵּלְתּוּן לְמֵימְרֵיהּ

And at the time when the Lord sent you from Rekem Giah, saying: Go up and take possession of the land which I have given you, then were you perverse with the Word of the Lord your God, and would not believe Him, nor be obedient to His Word.

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 9:23 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 →

Tyndale Open Study Notes

Tyndale Open Resources

9:23 Israel made Kadesh-barnea its major headquarters for the thirty-eight years of wandering in the wilderness (see also study note on 1:19).

Geneva Bible (1599)

Geneva Bible translators

At the return of the spies.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(23) Ye rebelled against the commandment.—Literally, the mouth of Jehovah.

Ye believed him not—when He encouraged you to go up.

Nor hearkened to his voice—when He forbad you. (See on Deu_1:32; Deu_1:43.)

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John Gill's Exposition

You have been rebellious against the Lord from the day that I knew you. Either from the time he first had and took knowledge of them and visited them, before his departure from Egypt to the land of Midian; (see Exo 2:11 compared with Act 7:25); or from the time that he was sent to them to deliver them out of Egypt; see Exo 5:20 and especially from the time he brought them into the wilderness.

and especially from the time he brought them into the wilderness.

Deuteronomy 9:25

deu 9:25

deu 9:25

deu 9:25Thus I fell down before the Lord forty days and forty nights, as I fell down at the first,.... Which Jarchi says are the selfsame said above, Deu 9:18, but doubled or repeated, because of the order of his prayer. The words "at the first" are not in the text; and, as before observed, we do not read that Moses fell down at the first forty days he was in the mount, unless it can be thought he did, Exo 32:11, wherefore this falling down seems to be as he fell down at the second forty days; and so this was a third forty days, according to the Jewish writers, and of which opinion were Dr. Lightfoot and others; See Gill on Exo 34:28,

because the Lord had said he would destroy you; threatened them with destruction, and seemed as if it was his intention to destroy them; nay, even after Moses's first prayer, though he bid him go and lead the people on, yet he declared that he would visit their sin upon them, Exo 32:34.

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

Slighted. Hebrew, "rebelled against," &c., as [in] ver. 24. Septuagint, "you were incredulous to." See Numbers xiii. 3.

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 24 words (17 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is Qâdêsh Barnêaʻ (“Kadesh-barnea”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

How does “Kadesh-barnea” (Qâdêsh Barnêaʻ) shape what this verse is saying?
How does Numbers 32:8, which shares the word «Kadesh-barnea», read alongside this verse?
What does the repetition of “LORD” (2× in this one verse) do in this verse?
These translations render this verse differently. What is at stake in choosing one wording over another?
«וּבִשְׁלֹ֨חַ» is a Qal Infinitive Construct verb. How does that grammatical form shape the action described?
Compare how Tyndale Open Study Notes and Geneva Bible (1599) read this verse. Where do they agree or differ?

Things to notice

This verse counts 24 Hebrew ↔ 36 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 19 words in this verse.
“LORD” occurs 2× in this single verse.
17 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 24 words in this verse.