What Does Deuteronomy 1:29 Mean?
Then I said to you, "Do not tremble, and do not fear them."
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
Then I said unto you, Dread not, neither be afraid of them.THE KEY
The verse names both the terror a threat produces and the fear fixed on the people who threaten you.
THE MEANING
When danger or a threatening person stands before you, the verse speaks now: the threat can be real without becoming the authority that governs your response. It names the terror rising within you and the fear directed toward them, and refuses both the final word.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a threat’s intensity gives it rightful command over you.
THE ROOT
תַעַרְצוּן
ta'aratsun
GROWS FROM
ערץ
To tremble or be terrified; to inspire terror.
“Do not tremble” in this verse is ta'aratsun. This root can name both terror itself and the force that produces it. The verse addresses the inward terror and the threatening presence together.
ALSO GROWS
ʿārîṣ: A fierce, violent, or tyrannical person.
עָרִיץ
The threatening person is described by a branch of the same root that names terror.
maʿărāṣāh: Terror or dread.
מַעֲרָצָה
This branch names the terror the verse tells the reader not to be overtaken by.
תִירְאוּן
tira'un
GROWS FROM
ירא
To fear or stand in awe.
“do not fear” in this verse is tira'un. The same root can express awe toward God or fear toward people and danger; the object gives the fear its direction. Here the words specify that the fear is “of them.”
ALSO GROWS
yir'ah: Fear or awe.
יִרְאָה
The noun preserves the same range of response found in the verb: its direction matters.
mora: Dread or fear.
מוֹרָא
This related form shows the fearful response as a state, while the verse names it as something directed toward the threatening people.
THE PATTERN
A threat can be acknowledged while being denied the authority to govern the reader’s response.
And Moses said to the people, Do not fear, take your stand, and see the deliverance of the LORD, which he will do for you today; for the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you will never see them again for the ages.Do not fear, for I am with you. Do not look about in dismay, for I am your God. I will grip you, and I will help you, and I will hold you up with the right hand of my alignment.THE THREAD
Hold fast and be firm. Do not fear, and do not quake before them. For the LORD your God is the one who walks with you. He will not release you, nor leave you.The two roots from this verse return together here, in reverse order: fear (yare) and terror (arats). Their pairing is joined to the promise that God goes with you and does not forsake you.
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