What Does Deuteronomy 10:21 Mean?
He is your praise, and he is your God, who has done for you these great and awe-inspiring things, which your eyes have seen.
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
He is thy praise, and he is thy God, that hath done for thee these great and terrible things, which thine eyes have seen.THE KEY
God is himself the praise that rises from the great, awe-inspiring acts your eyes have seen.
THE MEANING
God is your praise now: praise has its center in who he is and in the great acts your eyes have witnessed. The verse holds seeing and praise together, so what you see of God’s action becomes the substance of your praise.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that praise is only something you generate or perform; here God himself is named as its substance.
THE ROOT
תְּהִלָּתְךָ
tehillatekha
GROWS FROM
הלל
halal
Praise; to praise or celebrate.
The Hebrew word translated “praise” is tehillah, from the halal family. This family holds the act of praise and its expression together: God is called the praise itself, not only the one spoken of in praise.
ALSO GROWS
hillel: Praised or celebrated.
הִלֵּל
This verbal branch shows the act that gives rise to the praise named in the verse.
tehillah: Praise; a song or expression of praise.
תְּהִלָּה
This noun shares the verse’s word family and shows praise as an expression centered on God.
הַנּוֹרָאֹת
hannoraot
GROWS FROM
ירא
yare
To fear or stand in awe.
The word translated “terrible” carries the additional shade of awe-inspiring, from the yare family of fear and awe. The acts your eyes see are presented as overwhelming in scale, evoking awe.
ALSO GROWS
yir'ah: Fear or awe.
יִרְאָה
This noun names the response evoked by the awe-inspiring acts in the verse.
nora: Awe-inspiring or fearsome.
נוֹרָא
This related form describes the quality of the acts the verse says you have seen.
THE PATTERN
God himself becomes the content of praise as his deliverance and character are recognized.
The LORD is my strength and my song, and he has become my deliverance. This is my God, and I will make him a dwelling; my father's God, and I will lift him high.The LORD is my strength and song, and becomes my deliverance.And Mary said, My living soul makes the LORD great.THE THREAD
But you are set apart, settling upon the praises of Israel.The Hebrew word translated “praises” here, tehillot, shares the הלל root with “thy praise” in Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy calls God your praise; the psalm gives that connection a striking image, saying God inhabits praise.
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