What Does Deuteronomy 23:6 Mean?
You shall not seek their wholeness nor their goodness all your days for the ages.
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
Thou shalt not seek their peace nor their prosperity all thy days for ever.THE KEY
The prohibition reaches the named peoples’ whole well-being: their peace and their good both fall within its lasting boundary.
THE MEANING
The surrounding lines identify “their” as Ammon and Moab. The command forbids seeking their peace and their good, and extends that boundary across all your days.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that pursuing every people’s welfare is always unconditional: this verse places a lasting limit on whose peace is sought.
THE ROOT
שְׁלֹמָם
shlomam
GROWS FROM
שלם
sh-l-m
To be whole, complete, or sound.
The word carries wholeness and welfare alongside peace. The command concerns the named peoples’ well-being as a whole, not only the absence of conflict.
ALSO GROWS
shalem: Whole, complete.
שָׁלֵם
It makes visible the wholeness contained in the peace this verse names.
shillem: Repay, recompense.
שִׁלֵּם
This related form carries the sense of making complete or rendering what is due, echoing the root’s reach into settled conditions.
טֹבָתָם
tovatham
GROWS FROM
טוב
ṭ-w-b
To be good, beneficial, or pleasing.
“goodness” in this verse is tovatham. The phrase carries the sense of “their good,” including their benefit and welfare. The prohibition reaches that good alongside their peace.
ALSO GROWS
tov: Good, beneficial.
טוֹב
This is the basic sense carried into the phrase about their prosperity.
heitiv: Do good, treat well.
הֵיטִיב
This form shows the root’s connection to benefit actively given or done.
תִדְרֹשׁ
tidrosh
GROWS FROM
דרש
d-r-sh
To seek, inquire, or pursue.
“seek” in this verse is tidrosh. The verb describes deliberate pursuit. The command addresses whether the named peoples’ welfare is made an object of active seeking.
ALSO GROWS
derishah: Inquiry, request.
דְּרִישָׁה
It shows the root’s sense of an intentional search or appeal.
midrash: Inquiry, exposition.
מִדְרָשׁ
This related word preserves the root’s movement from seeking toward sustained examination.
THE PATTERN
Seeking peace is deliberate pursuit, and the people toward whom it is directed are part of the meaning.
You shall not seek their wholeness nor their goodness all your days for the ages.And seek the wholeness of the city where I have carried you away, and pray to the LORD for it, for in its wholeness you will have wholeness.Let him turn aside from evil and do good; let him seek wholeness and pursue it.THE THREAD
And seek the wholeness of the city where I have carried you away, and pray to the LORD for it, for in its wholeness you will have wholeness.Jeremiah uses the same Hebrew roots: דרש (darash, “seek”) and שלם, expressed as שָׁלוֹם (shalom, “wholeness, welfare”). Its command to seek the city’s shalom makes this verse’s boundary visible: the object of the pursuit changes with whom the sentence names.
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