What Does Deuteronomy 23:21 Mean?
When you vow a vow to the LORD your God, you shall not linger to make it whole, for the LORD your God will surely seek it from you, and it would be a shortcoming in 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
When thou shalt vow a vow unto the LORD thy God, thou shalt not slack to pay it: for the LORD thy God will surely require it of thee; and it would be sin in thee.THE KEY
The root of “pay,” שׁלם (shalam, to complete or make whole), ties fulfilling a vow to making the pledged word whole.
THE MEANING
Your vow remains open after it leaves your mouth; the LORD continues to seek what you pledged. Until it is fulfilled, the verse names a missing thing within you. Its focus is the distance between what is promised and what is completed.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that sincere intent completes a vow by itself: the promised thing remains outstanding until it is paid.
THE ROOT
לְשַׁלְּמוֹ
leshalmo
GROWS FROM
שלם
shalam
Be whole or complete; make whole or repay.
“make it whole” in this verse is leshalmo. The Hebrew word for paying belongs to the same root family as wholeness. Fulfillment is what completes the pledged word.
ALSO GROWS
shillem: Repay; make restitution.
שִׁלֵּם
This verb form shows how the root carries the sense of making good what is owed.
shalom: Wholeness; peace.
שָׁלוֹם
Its shared root places repayment beside wholeness: what was pledged is made complete.
דָּרֹשׁ יִדְרְשֶׁנּוּ
darosh yidreshenu
GROWS FROM
דרש
darash
Seek, inquire, investigate; demand.
The Hebrew repeats the root: “seeking, he will seek it.” The English “surely require” carries this active, emphatic sense of the vow being sought out.
ALSO GROWS
darash: Seek; inquire.
דָּרַשׁ
The repeated verb makes the seeking itself part of the verse’s emphasis.
midrash: Inquiry; interpretation through study.
מִדְרָשׁ
This related word preserves the root’s sense of searching into something.
חֵטְא
chet
GROWS FROM
חטא
chata
Miss; fail; fall short.
“shortcoming” in this verse is chet. The verse calls the unfulfilled vow a missing thing “in you.” This root keeps the attention on what remains incomplete, rather than on a label detached from the act.
ALSO GROWS
chata: Miss; fail; incur fault.
חָטָא
The verb gives the root’s concrete sense of falling short.
chatat: Sin; an offering for the missing.
חַטָּאת
This related word carries the same root into the language of what has gone missing and its remedy.
THE PATTERN
A word spoken as a commitment is measured by whether it is carried through.
When you vow a vow to God, do not linger to make it whole. For there is no delight in the thick-headed. Make whole what you have vowed.In whose eyes the despised one is spurned, yet he gives weight to those in awe of the LORD. He swears to his own harm, and does not shift.But let your word be, Yes, yes; No, no. For whatever is more than these comes from evil.THE THREAD
When you vow a vow to God, do not linger to make it whole. For there is no delight in the thick-headed. Make whole what you have vowed.Ecclesiastes 5:4 uses the same Hebrew root, שׁלם (shalam, to complete or make whole), for “pay.” It makes the connection visible: the vow remains unfinished until what was pledged is brought to completion.
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