What Does Deuteronomy 17:17 Mean?
Nor shall he multiply wives for himself, and his heart shall not turn aside. Nor shall he greatly multiply silver and gold for himself.
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
Neither shall he multiply wives to himself, that his heart turn not away: neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold.THE KEY
The verse places multiplied attachments and multiplied wealth beside a heart that can be turned from its course.
THE MEANING
The verse places multiplied wives and multiplied silver and gold beside the heart’s turning, showing how accumulation can press on inner direction. That vulnerability is present wherever desire keeps expanding and the heart follows what it gathers.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that adding more leaves the heart unchanged.
THE ROOT
יַרְבֶּה
yarbeh
GROWS FROM
רבה
rabah: increase, become many.
“multiply” in this verse is yarbeh. The Hebrew repeats יַרְבֶּה for both wives and silver and gold. That repeated root binds the two forms of accumulation together, while the surrounding words name the heart’s turning as their danger.
ALSO GROWS
hirbah: increased, made many
הִרְבָּה
This form carries the same root into an act of increasing, linking multiplication here with making something more numerous.
harbeh: much, greatly; to increase greatly
הַרְבֵּה
This form intensifies the same idea of increase, echoing the verse’s warning about what is multiplied greatly.
יָסוּר
yāsûr
GROWS FROM
סור
sûr: turn aside, depart from a course.
“turn aside” in this verse is yāsûr. The verse describes the heart’s turning as a departure, a change of direction. The warning is about where the heart goes as what surrounds it grows.
ALSO GROWS
lāsûr: to turn aside, to depart
לָסוּר
The infinitive preserves the same root’s sense of leaving a course, clarifying what the heart’s turning entails.
sūr: turn aside; depart
סוּר
This root form makes the movement itself plain: turning away is a departure, not merely a passing feeling.
כֶּסֶף
kesef
GROWS FROM
כספ
kesef: silver or money; the same consonants also form a verb for longing or yearning.
The Hebrew word for silver shares its consonants with a verb for longing. The sound-family brings possession and desire into one field: the verse speaks of what is accumulated beside the heart that may turn.
ALSO GROWS
kāsaph: to long for, yearn
כָּסַף
The shared consonants connect the silver named in the verse with the language of desire.
nikhsaf: longed for, yearned
נִכְסַף
This form carries the same consonants into an expression of longing, placing desire near the verse’s multiplying wealth.
THE PATTERN
What is multiplied around a person can redirect the heart toward what it accumulates.
It came to be, when Solomon was old, that his wives bent his heart after other gods, and his heart was not whole with the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father.Do not lean your full weight on what presses, and do not become vapor through snatching. If wealth blooms, do not set your heart upon it.For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.THE THREAD
I do not turn aside from your judgments, for you aim me.Both verses use סור (sûr, “turn aside” or “depart”): Deuteronomy names the heart’s turning, while the psalm speaks of not departing from what has been taught. The shared root makes the warning about accumulation a question of direction, what the heart follows, and what it leaves.
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