What Does Deuteronomy 10:17 Mean?
For the LORD your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords, the great God, the mighty, the awe-inspiring, who does not lift up the face of any and does not take a bribe.
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
For the LORD your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty, and a terrible, which regardeth not persons, nor taketh reward:THE KEY
No face, however high, can be lifted above another before the highest authority, and no reward can bend its judgment.
THE MEANING
The highest authority meets you without favoritism: no face is raised above another, and no reward changes its judgment. Its greatness is inseparable from this evenness; might does not become privilege.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that rank makes someone more worthy of regard, or that a gift can buy the Judge’s favor.
THE ROOT
יִשָּׂא
yissa
GROWS FROM
נשא
nasa
To lift, carry, or bear.
“does not lift up the face of any” in this verse is yissa. The phrase literally speaks of lifting a face: no person’s face is elevated above another before this authority. The same root gives a title for one elevated to rank, revealing that even high status cannot lift someone above impartial judgment.
ALSO GROWS
nasi: A prince or leader; literally, one elevated.
נָשִׂיא
This branch makes rank visible: even a person elevated to leadership receives no special lift in judgment.
massa: A burden or load carried; also an oracle or burden.
מַשָּׂא
It carries the root’s sense of bearing, while the verse shows that no person’s face is borne upward as a favor.
THE PATTERN
True authority is not swayed by status or gifts; its judgment does not favor one face over another.
You shall not bend judgment. You shall not recognize faces, nor take a bribe, for the bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the aligned.Therefore now let the awe of the LORD be upon you. Guard it and do it, for there is no crookedness with the LORD our God, nor lifting up the face of anyone, nor taking of gifts.Then Peter opened his mouth and said, In truth I have laid hold of this, that God lifts no one's face.THE THREAD
You shall not bend judgment. You shall not recognize faces, nor take a bribe, for the bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the aligned.The Hebrew phrase for “respect persons” uses the same image of lifting a face found in Deuteronomy 10:17. Here the verse pairs that lifted face with a gift that distorts judgment, exposing the two ways impartiality is bent.
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