What Does Deuteronomy 28:63 Mean?
And it will be, as the LORD rejoiced over you to do you good and to multiply you, so the LORD will rejoice over you to make you perish and to wipe you out. You will be uprooted from the ground you come in to possess.
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 it shall come to pass, that as the LORD rejoiced over you to do you good, and to multiply you; so the LORD will rejoice over you to destroy you, and to bring you to nought; and ye shall be plucked from off the land whither thou goest to possess it.THE KEY
The verse’s darkest reversal leaves “rejoice” untouched: the same Hebrew root names the LORD’s delight in doing good and in destroying.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks now as a stark warning: the LORD’s rejoicing moves from doing good and multiplying to destruction, bringing to nothing, and removal from the land. The repeated verb holds both outcomes together, and the final image does not soften the violence of being plucked away.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It breaks the assumption that divine delight guarantees a gentle outcome: here, the same rejoicing stands beside ruin.
THE ROOT
שָׂשׂ
śās
GROWS FROM
שׂו״שׂ
To exult, rejoice.
“rejoiced / will rejoice” in this verse is śās. The verse repeats this root on both sides of its reversal: rejoicing is directed first toward doing good and multiplying, then toward destruction and removal. The force of the rejoicing stays constant while its outcome changes.
ALSO GROWS
śāśôn: Joy, gladness, rejoicing.
שָׂשׂוֹן
This related noun shows the root’s sense of exultant joy, the same force attached here to opposite outcomes.
məśōś: Delight, gladness.
מְשׂוֹשׂ
This branch keeps the focus on delight, making the verse’s reversal sharper: the delight remains, while what it brings about changes.
הַאֲבִיד
haʾăḇîḏ
GROWS FROM
אבד
To perish or become lost; in this causative form, to cause to perish or become lost.
“make you perish” in this verse is haʾăḇîḏ. The word translated “destroy” carries the seed of perishing or being lost. The following image of being plucked from the land extends that loss from life and continuity to place.
ALSO GROWS
ʾōḇēḏ: One who is perishing or lost.
אֹבֵד
It shows the root’s sense of loss that lies beneath the forceful causative form in this verse.
ʾăḇēḏāh: A lost thing, a loss.
אֲבֵדָה
This noun makes the root’s language of loss concrete beside the verse’s threat of being brought to nothing.
THE PATTERN
Scripture can place divine delight or love beside consequential action, so affection alone does not promise a gentle outcome.
And the LORD your God will make you overflow in every work of your hand, in the fruit of your body, in the fruit of your cattle, and in the fruit of your ground, for good; for the LORD will turn back to rejoice over you for good, as he rejoiced over your fathers.For the LORD reproves the one he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights.For whom the LORD loves, he trains, and he whips every son he takes to his side.THE THREAD
Yes, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will plant them in this land in truth, with my whole heart and my whole living soul.The Hebrew verb translated “rejoice” comes from the same root, שׂו״שׂ (ś-w-ś, to exult or rejoice), used in Deuteronomy 28:63. Here that rejoicing leads to doing good and planting in the land; beside the warning in Deuteronomy, the shared root makes the reversal concrete: the word for rejoicing remains while its outcome changes.
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