What Does Deuteronomy 11:21 Mean?
So that your days may multiply, and the days of your children, in the ground which the LORD swore to your fathers to give them, as the days of the heavens upon the earth.
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
That your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children, in the land which the LORD sware unto your fathers to give them, as the days of heaven upon the earth.THE KEY
The promise gathers your days and your children’s days into one shared life, so that increase reaches beyond a single lifespan.
THE MEANING
Your days and your children’s days are held together in the promise of a land given as a gift. Their span is pictured as vast as the days of heaven upon the earth.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Your life is measured only by the years you personally live.
THE ROOT
יִרְבּוּ
yirbu
GROWS FROM
רָבָה
To become many; to increase.
“multiply” in this verse is yirbu. יִרְבּוּ comes from רָבָה (rābâ, “to become many, increase”). The verse pictures increase reaching both your days and your children’s days, joining duration with life carried forward through generations.
ALSO GROWS
harbeh: Much; many; abundantly.
הַרְבֵּה
This form from רָבָה carries the sense of abundance, opening “multiplied” to a broader image of days becoming plentiful.
marbeh: Increasing; making many.
מַרְבֶּה
This form from רָבָה describes increase in motion, echoing the verse’s picture of days extending through parents and children.
THE PATTERN
Life is pictured as an increase that reaches beyond one generation and takes place on the earth.
That I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens, and as the sand on the lip of the sea; and your seed will possess the gate of his enemies.And you see your children's children, and wholeness upon Israel.Give weight to your father and your mother, which is the first commandment with promise. That it may go well with you, and you may be long in days upon the earth.THE THREAD
That I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens, and as the sand on the lip of the sea; and your seed will possess the gate of his enemies.Both verses use רָבָה (rābâ, “to become many, increase”): Genesis pictures the seed multiplying, while Deuteronomy pictures the days of parents and children increasing. The stars of heaven there and the days of heaven here give the shared increase a vast horizon.
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