What Does Deuteronomy 28:62 Mean?
And you will be left as a counted handful, though you were like the stars of the heavens for abundance, because you would not hear and respond to the voice of the LORD your God.
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 ye shall be left few in number, whereas ye were as the stars of heaven for multitude; because thou wouldest not obey the voice of the LORD thy God.THE KEY
A people once beyond counting become few when they refuse the voice that calls for a response.
THE MEANING
The verse holds abundance and hearing together: a multitude pictured like the stars is reduced to a remnant when the LORD’s voice is refused. “Obey” carries the sense of hearing and responding, so the loss reaches beyond numbers to the people’s relation to that voice.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the belief that abundance is self-sustaining, that what has grown vast must remain secure even when the LORD’s voice is refused.
THE ROOT
לִשְׁמֹעַ
lishmoa
GROWS FROM
שמע
To hear, listen, and heed; hearing that receives and responds.
“hear and respond” in this verse is lishmoa. The verb joins hearing with response: “obey the voice” is literally framed as hearing the voice. The verse’s hinge is not simply the presence of a command, but whether its voice is received and answered.
ALSO GROWS
shema: “Hear!”, the imperative form of the verb.
שְׁמַע
The opening word of the Shema, it makes hearing the first movement of covenant response.
shemu’ah: A report or news; something heard.
שְׁמוּעָה
The same root names what is received by hearing, linking the voice in the verse to a message that calls for response.
THE PATTERN
Covenant life is repeatedly portrayed as hearing God’s voice and answering it.
That you may love the LORD your God, and that you may hear and respond to his voice, and that you may cling to him; for he is your life, and the lengthening of your days; that you may settle upon the ground the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.But this word I commanded them, saying, Hear and respond to my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people; and walk in every way that I have commanded you, so that it may be good for you.My sheep hear and respond to my voice, and I perceive them, and they follow me.THE THREAD
But they refused to bend the ear, and turned a shoulder aside, and made their ears heavy so they would not hear and respond.The Hebrew for “hear” here comes from the same שמע (shama, hear and respond) root as “obey” in Deuteronomy. Zechariah shows the refusal in the stopped ears; Deuteronomy names the devastation that follows.
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