Lo Yisa Goy: וְשָׁפַט בֵּין

The end of Isaiah 2:4, sung as a round almost everywhere Hebrew is taught. Two clauses, both negative, both built on the same trick: the verb comes first and the subject follows it, which is the ordinary order in biblical Hebrew and the opposite of what a European ear expects. Learn this one and you have the shape of a biblical sentence. The line about beating swords into ploughshares, carved on the wall opposite the United Nations in New York, is the sentence just before it, and it is here too.

1 · the verse

וְשָׁפַט בֵּין הַגּוֹיִם וְהוֹכִיחַ לְעַמִּים רַבִּים וְכִתְּתוּ חַרְבוֹתָם לְאִתִּים וַחֲנִיתוֹתֵיהֶם לְמַזְמֵרוֹת לֹא יִשָּׂא גוֹי אֶל גּוֹי חֶרֶב וְלֹא יִלְמְדוּ עוֹד מִלְחָמָה

וְשָׁפַט

ve-sha-FAT

and he shall judge

בֵּין

bein

between

הַגּוֹיִם

ha-go-YIM

the nations

וְהוֹכִיחַ

ve-ho-CHI-ach

and he shall decide

לְעַמִּים

le-a-MIM

for peoples

רַבִּים

ra-BIM

many

| Em | Am |

He shall judge between the nations, and decide for many peoples;

וְכִתְּתוּ

ve-chit-TU

and they shall beat

חַרְבוֹתָם

char-vo-TAM

their swords

לְאִתִּים

le-i-TIM

into ploughshares

וַחֲנִיתוֹתֵיהֶם

va-cha-ni-to-TEI-hem

and their spears

לְמַזְמֵרוֹת

le-maz-me-ROT

into pruning hooks

| D | Em |

and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks.

לֹא

not

יִשָּׂא

yi-SA

shall lift up

גוֹי

goi

nation

אֶל

against

גּוֹי

goi

nation

חֶרֶב

CHE-rev

sword

| Em | Am Em |

Nation shall not lift up sword against nation,

וְלֹא

ve-LO

and not

יִלְמְדוּ

yil-me-DU

shall they learn

עוֹד

any more

מִלְחָמָה

mil-cha-MA

war

| D | Em |

and they shall learn war no more.

Two grammatical points are worth the whole page. First, the word order: יִשָּׂא (yi-sa) comes before גוֹי (goi), verb then subject, which is the default in biblical Hebrew and is why the English sounds inverted when you translate it word by word. Second, חֶרֶב (che-rev), the object, arrives last of all — the sentence names the action, the doer, the target, and only then the weapon. Hebrew can put the heaviest word at the end and often does.

♫ Singing notes

The part everyone sings is the last two clauses, from לֹא (lo) onward. Start the round there and add the earlier lines only if the group is confident.
As a round it works in three: the second voice enters when the first reaches גּוֹי (goi), the third when the second does.
Do not rush מִלְחָמָה (mil-cha-ma). It is the last word of the verse and the last word of the round, and every voice lands on it at a different moment — which is the whole pleasure of singing it this way.
The chords stay under the melody rather than driving it. One strum per bar is enough; a busy right hand fights the round.

♦ About this song

The text

Isaiah 2:4, from the vision of the mountain of the LORD that opens the book. The same prophecy appears almost word for word in Micah 4:3, which is one of the clearest cases in the Tanakh of two prophets carrying the same oracle.

The two agricultural tools

לְאִתִּים (le-i-tim) and לְמַזְמֵרוֹת (le-maz-me-rot) are not generic farm implements; the first is the iron share of a plough, the second the curved blade used to prune vines. The image is precise: the metal of war is not thrown away, it is reforged into the two tools that feed people. That is a stronger claim than disarmament.

Where you will hear it

Sung at school assemblies, at memorial ceremonies, and at every gathering that wants to end on something other than a speech. There is no single canonical melody — several rounds circulate and they are all called by the same first three words, so if two people start it in different tunes, neither of them is wrong.