What Does Deuteronomy 1:31 Mean?
And in the wilderness, where you have seen how the LORD your God carried you, as a man carries his son, in all the way that you went, until you came to this place.
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 in the wilderness, where thou hast seen how that the LORD thy God bare thee, as a man doth bear his son, in all the way that ye went, until ye came into this place.THE KEY
The wilderness is where you see that the strength carrying you has been there for the whole way.
THE MEANING
God’s care carries you through the wilderness, and the whole way rests inside that care. You are borne as a son is borne, all the way to this place. Reaching here is itself evidence of the strength sustaining you.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The wilderness means you are alone and must carry yourself through.
THE ROOT
נְשָׂאֲךָ
nesa'akha
GROWS FROM
נָשָׂא
nasa
to lift, carry, or bear
“carried you, as a man carries his son” in this verse is nesa'akha. The verse uses the root נָשָׂא (nasa, to carry) for God bearing you through the wilderness. This root also names the burden itself and the one lifted up, so the image holds both the weight being carried and the strength that carries it.
ALSO GROWS
massa: burden, load
מַשָּׂא
The same root names what is carried; the verse pictures God taking the journey’s weight upon himself.
nasi: prince, leader; one elevated
נָשִׂיא
This branch carries the sense of being lifted up, echoing the verse’s image of a child raised and borne by another.
THE PATTERN
God’s care is pictured as carrying people through what they cannot cross by their own strength.
You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I lifted you on the wings of eagles, and brought you to myself.Even to old age I AM, and to gray hair I will bear you. I have made, and I will lift, I will bear, and I will slip you free.Come to me, all you who toil and have been loaded down, and I will give you rest.THE THREAD
You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I lifted you on the wings of eagles, and brought you to myself.Exodus uses the same Hebrew root נָשָׂא (nasa, to carry) for being borne on eagles’ wings. Deuteronomy brings that carrying close: the carried people are held like a son, through the whole way.
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