What Does Deuteronomy 28:10 Mean?
And all the peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the LORD, and they shall fear 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 all people of the earth shall see that thou art called by the name of the LORD; and they shall be afraid of thee.THE KEY
The LORD’s name called over you is not merely a label but a nature made visible, and its visibility makes others fear you.
THE MEANING
The LORD’s name is called over you, and people see that belonging and fear you. The verse makes your public identity legible and holds its effect plainly: others respond with fear, not necessarily affection.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that being named by the LORD is invisible and changes nothing about how others see you.
THE ROOT
נִקְרָא
niqrāʾ from qārāʾ
GROWS FROM
קרא
q-r-ʾ
Call, summon, or proclaim.
The phrase begins with shem (שֵׁם, name as nature) and uses the passive of qara (קָרָא, call): the LORD’s nature is called over you as a public identity. The next clause says all peoples see it, so this name-bearing is visible before it provokes fear.
ALSO GROWS
miqrāʾ: A convocation or assembly called together.
מִקְרָא
The same root’s movement from calling to gathering shows how a spoken designation can form a visible people.
qōrēʾ: One who calls or reads aloud.
קֹרֵא
This branch keeps the root’s public, voiced quality: what is called over you can be heard and recognized by others.
וְיָרְאוּ
weyirʾû from yārēʾ
GROWS FROM
ירא
y-r-ʾ
Fear or dread; in other settings, reverence or awe.
Here the fear is directed toward you: the peoples see the LORD’s name called over you and fear you. The verse leaves that response charged and unsettling; it does not turn fear into admiration.
ALSO GROWS
yirʾāh: Fear, dread, or reverence.
יִרְאָה
This noun preserves the range of the root while the verse’s wording fixes the response as fear of you.
môrāʾ: Dread or terror.
מוֹרָא
This branch brings out the threatening edge that can sit inside the response described here.
THE PATTERN
A name called over a person makes belonging visible and shapes how others respond.
Why should you be as one stunned, as a mighty man who cannot deliver? Yet you, O LORD, are within us, and we are called by your nature. Do not set us down.Hear and respond in heaven, your settling place, and act according to all that the stranger calls to you for, so that all the peoples of the earth may perceive your name, to stand in awe of you, as your people Israel do; and that they may perceive that this house, which I have built, is called by your name.And when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. And it came to pass that for a whole year they gathered themselves in the assembly, and taught a great crowd. And the disciples were first called the anointed ones in Antioch.THE THREAD
Why should you be as one stunned, as a mighty man who cannot deliver? Yet you, O LORD, are within us, and we are called by your nature. Do not set us down.Jeremiah uses the same qara (קרא, call) construction: “we are called by thy name.” There it is a plea for God’s presence; in Deuteronomy, that named belonging becomes visible to outsiders and provokes fear. The shared wording opens the name as public identity, not a private label.
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