What Does Deuteronomy 2:33 Mean?
And the LORD our God gave him before us, and we struck him, and his sons, and all his people.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And the LORD our God delivered him before us; and we smote him, and his sons, and all his people.THE KEY
“Delivered” here is a handover: the LORD places Sihon before Israel, and the verse names “we” as the ones who strike him.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks plainly about conquest: the LORD gives the opposing king into Israel’s reach, and Israel strikes him, his sons, and all his people. Divine action and human violence remain together in the sentence; neither disappears behind the other.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the idea that calling an outcome God’s work makes human violence disappear: it keeps the first-person “we” attached to the blows.
THE ROOT
וַיִּתְּנֵהוּ
wayyittenehu
GROWS FROM
נתן
n-t-n
נתן (natan) means to give, set, or place.
“gave” in this verse is wayyittenehu. The verb presents the king as given or placed before Israel. English “delivered” carries that handover, while the Hebrew root also links it to ordinary giving and placing.
ALSO GROWS
natan: to give, set, or place
נָתַן
This verb shares the seed of “delivered,” showing the transfer as an act of giving or placing.
mattanah: gift
מַתָּנָה
The word for a gift grows from the same root: both a gift and this handover are something given.
וַנַּךְ
wayyannak
GROWS FROM
נכה
n-k-h
נכה (nakah) means to strike or smite.
“struck” in this verse is wayyannak. The verse moves from the LORD’s giving to Israel’s striking, and the Hebrew keeps the human action explicit in “we smote.” The related noun for a blow or plague shows the physical force carried by this root.
ALSO GROWS
nakah: to strike or smite
נָכָה
This is the verb’s root form, making clear that “smote” names a striking action.
makkah: a blow, wound, or plague
מַכָּה
This related noun carries the same striking root into the resulting blow or injury.
THE PATTERN
A divine handover and the human violence that follows can be named in the same sentence.
And the LORD our God gave him before us, and we struck him, and his sons, and all his people.And the LORD gave it, and its king, into the hand of Israel; and he struck it with the mouth of the sword, and all the living souls within it; he left none remaining in it, but did to its king as he did to the king of Jericho.This one, handed over by the marked-out counsel and foreknowing of God, you nailed to the cross by the hands of the unbounded, and you killed him.THE THREAD
Rise up, pull up, and cross over the torrent-bed of Arnon. Behold, I have given into your hand Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land; begin to take hold of it, and stir him up in battle.Two verses earlier, the same root נתן (natan, give or place) names Sihon as given into Israel’s hand. Here that handover reaches its bodily consequence in the words “we smote him.”
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us