What Does Deuteronomy 28:15 Mean?
But it shall be, if you do not hear and respond to the voice of the LORD your God, to guard and to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command you this day, that all these curses shall come upon you and overtake 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
But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee:THE KEY
Here, “hearken” already carries the response English often postpones: the voice is either heard and kept, or refused with consequences that catch up.
THE MEANING
The verse addresses the reader in a stark conditional: when the LORD’s voice is not heard and answered, and the commands are not kept and done, the stated curses come and catch up. The warning treats refusal as consequential, not as an empty absence of action.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that hearing without response leaves the hearer untouched.
THE ROOT
תִשְׁמַע
tishmaʿ
GROWS FROM
שמע
Hear, listen, respond
The Hebrew root שמע (shamaʿ, hear and respond) gathers listening and answering under one seed. In this sentence, “hearken” is followed by keeping and doing, so the voice is not merely sound that reaches an ear; hearing opens into response.
ALSO GROWS
shemaʿ: A call to hear and attend
שְׁמַע
It shows that hearing can be an active response to a voice, not just receiving sound.
shemuʿah: Something heard and conveyed
שְׁמוּעָה
This branch keeps hearing connected to what is received and carried forward.
לִשְׁמֹר
lishmor
GROWS FROM
שמר
Watch, guard, keep
Shamar is a guarding word: to observe the commands is to keep them in custody, not simply notice them. Beside shema, it sketches a linked movement, hear the voice, guard its instruction, do it.
ALSO GROWS
shomer: One who watches over or guards
שֹׁמֵר
The command is something to keep watch over, not merely glance at.
mishmeret: A duty or entrusted watch
מִשְׁמֶרֶת
This branch suggests that keeping the command involves holding an entrusted responsibility.
וְהִשִּׂיגוּךָ
vehissiguḵa
GROWS FROM
נשׂג
Reach, attain, catch up with
“overtake” in this verse is vehissiguḵa. Nasag makes the curse arrive as something that reaches and catches up with the refuser. What is at stake in the sentence is not a distant warning but consequences portrayed as overtaking.
ALSO GROWS
hissig: To reach or catch up with someone or something
הִשִּׂיג
It shares the verse’s sense of a consequence reaching its recipient.
hasagah: Reaching or attaining; a grasp of something
הַשָּׂגָה
This related form keeps the root’s sense of reaching what is within range.
THE PATTERN
The voice becomes consequential at the point of response: hearing leads into keeping and doing, while refusal is not neutral.
Because I call out and you refuse; I stretch out my hand, and no one bends an ear.But be makers of the word, and not hearers only, miscounting yourselves.My sheep hear and respond to my voice, and I perceive them, and they follow me.THE THREAD
And Samuel said, Does the LORD delight in rising offerings and slaughtered offerings as much as in hearing and responding to the voice of the LORD? Behold, hearing and responding is better than a slaughtered offering; to prick the ear is better than the fat of rams.The same root שׁמע (shamaʿ, hear and respond) underlies “hearken” here and in Deuteronomy 28:15. Samuel’s line makes explicit the link Deuteronomy builds into its sequence: hearing the voice is joined to obedience, so refusal carries consequences.
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