What Does Deuteronomy 16:17 Mean?
Each one shall give according to the gift of his hand, according to the blessing of the LORD your God which he has given you.
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
Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the LORD thy God which he hath given thee.THE KEY
The root of “given” also forms “gift,” so what passes from your hand is already part of what has reached you.
THE MEANING
Your giving takes its measure from what your hand can offer and from the blessing you have received. The verse holds receiving and giving together as one living movement, rather than setting the same amount for everyone.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that everyone must give the same amount for their giving to count; the measure here follows what each person has received and can offer.
THE ROOT
נָתַן
natan
GROWS FROM
נתן
natan
To give, set, or place.
The word translated “given” shares its root with the verse’s word for “gift.” The offering from the hand and the blessing received are joined by one seed: what is given outward grows from what has been given first.
ALSO GROWS
mattanat: Gift of; the gift of.
מַתְּנַת
This is the word for the “gift of his hand,” from the same root as “given thee,” joining the hand’s offering to prior receiving.
mattanah: Gift; present.
מַתָּנָה
This noun carries the same giving-root into the thing offered, revealing that the gift and the act of giving share a source.
בִּרְכַּת
birkat
GROWS FROM
ברך
barakh
To bless; the root also carries the image of bending or kneeling.
The blessing that measures the gift is something received, not an abstract score to achieve. The root’s bending image gives blessing a posture of favor conferred, which the hand then carries into its own giving.
ALSO GROWS
barakh: To bless; to kneel or bend the knee.
בָּרַךְ
The verb holds blessing alongside the posture of bending, giving the received blessing a concrete shape in the verse.
berakhah: Blessing; benediction.
בְּרָכָה
This noun names the blessing according to which each person gives, tying the measure of the offering to favor already received.
THE PATTERN
What is given flows from what has first been received, and its measure follows what each person has to offer.
But who am I, and what is my people, that we should hold the strength to offer so willingly after this sort? For all things come from you, and from your hand have we given to you.Heal the weak, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. As a gift you received, as a gift give.For if the leaning heart is there first, it is well received according to what one has, and not according to what one does not have.THE THREAD
But who am I, and what is my people, that we should hold the strength to offer so willingly after this sort? For all things come from you, and from your hand have we given to you.The same נתן (natan) root appears in Deuteronomy for what the LORD has given you and in Chronicles for what the people give back to God. The shared root opens the offering as a return of what was already received.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us