What Does Deuteronomy 19:20 Mean?
And those who remain shall hear and respond, and fear, and shall not add again to do any such evil within 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
And those which remain shall hear, and fear, and shall henceforth commit no more any such evil among you.THE KEY
The verse treats repeated harm as something people add to the community, and makes its consequence audible enough to stop that addition.
THE MEANING
When the cost of false testimony is made visible, the people around it hear and fear, and the same harm is no longer added again. Judgment reaches beyond the accused and the witness: it can interrupt repetition across the community.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie this undoes is that false witness harms only the accused and leaves everyone else untouched; its judgment reaches the whole community and changes what it dares repeat.
THE ROOT
יֹסִפוּ
yōsifū
GROWS FROM
יסף
To add, increase, or continue.
“add again to do” in this verse is yōsifū. The Hebrew says they will not add to doing this evil. Repeated harm is pictured as an addition, and the sentence is meant to stop another measure from being added to the community.
ALSO GROWS
Yosef: He adds.
יוֹסֵף
The name grows from the same root of adding; here the same root describes the refusal to add another instance of harm.
mosif: Adding; one who adds.
מוֹסִיף
This branch makes the force of “no more” concrete: the community is to add no further act of this evil.
יִשְׁמְעוּ
yishmeʿū
GROWS FROM
שמע
To hear, listen, and heed.
“hear and respond” in this verse is yishmeʿū. The root can hold hearing and response together. Those who hear the judgment are not merely informed; their hearing reaches into what they do next.
ALSO GROWS
Shema: Hear and respond.
שְׁמַע
It reveals the response contained in the community’s hearing of the consequence.
shemuʿah: A report or news that is heard.
שְׁמוּעָה
The judgment becomes a report carried to others, extending its warning beyond the people directly involved.
יִרָאוּ
yirʾū
GROWS FROM
ירא
To fear or stand in dread.
Here fear follows a sentence imposed for false testimony, so the root carries the sense of apprehending real danger. It is part of the verse’s account of what restrains people from repeating the harm.
ALSO GROWS
yirʾah: Fear or reverence.
יִרְאָה
This noun shows the same root’s range; in this verse the surrounding judgment makes fear of consequence the fitting shade.
nora: Fearful, awe-inspiring, or dreadful.
נוֹרָא
This branch carries the root’s sense of something that commands fear through its weight and consequence.
THE PATTERN
Visible judgment makes wrongdoing audible to others and can restrain its repetition.
And all the people shall hear and respond, and fear, and no longer act in a boiling over.When the scorner is punished, the open one becomes wise; and when the wise one is made to see, he takes knowledge.Expose those who miss the mark before all, so that the rest also may fear.THE THREAD
And all Israel shall hear and respond, and shall tremble, and shall do no more any such wickedness as this among you.Both verses join hearing and fear to the refusal to repeat the same evil. Here that sequence follows judgment for false witness, showing that its warning is meant to reach everyone who hears of the consequence.
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