What Does Deuteronomy 28:7 Mean?
The LORD shall give your enemies who rise up against you, struck down before your face. They shall come out against you on one road, and flee before you on seven roads.
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
The LORD shall cause thine enemies that rise up against thee to be smitten before thy face: they shall come out against thee one way, and flee before thee seven ways.THE KEY
The threat arrives as one coordinated force, but the LORD turns its single advance into seven routes of retreat.
THE MEANING
When opposition rises against you, the LORD causes it to be struck down before your eyes. It advances by one route and breaks into seven paths of retreat; the reversal is visible, and the force that came against you does not control its ending.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A united attack is not proof that its victory is inevitable.
THE ROOT
יָנוּסוּ
yānūsû
GROWS FROM
נוּס
n-w-s
To flee or escape.
“flee” in this verse is yānūsû. The same root gives Hebrew words for both flight and refuge. Here, the enemies’ retreat is not a single step back: they scatter along seven routes.
ALSO GROWS
mānôs: Refuge, escape.
מָנוֹס
The root links fleeing with reaching a place of escape, giving the retreat a destination as well as a direction.
menūsāh: Flight, escape.
מְנוּסָה
This noun makes the action in the verse into a state of flight: the force that came against you is now escaping.
הַקָּמִים
haqāmîm
GROWS FROM
קוּם
q-w-m
To rise, stand, or be established.
“rise up” in this verse is haqāmîm. The verse names the enemies by their act of standing against you, then shows that stance collapsing into flight. The root can also describe what is established, but rising against you does not make their position lasting.
ALSO GROWS
māqôm: Place, standing place.
מָקוֹם
Its connection to the root for standing makes the attackers’ chosen position part of the verse’s picture of opposition.
hēqîm: Raise, establish.
הֵקִים
This form shows the root can describe something being set up or established, sharpening the contrast with the attackers’ sudden retreat.
THE PATTERN
When opposition is met under divine authority, its advance gives way to retreat.
To the chief Musician, A Psalm or Song of David. Let God rise, let his enemies be scattered, and let those who hate him flee from his face.And he turned aside the wheels of their chariots, and they drove them heavily, and the Egyptians said, Let us flee from the face of Israel, for the LORD fights for them against the Egyptians.Therefore place yourselves under God. Stand against the Slanderer, and he will flee from you.THE THREAD
To the chief Musician, A Psalm or Song of David. Let God rise, let his enemies be scattered, and let those who hate him flee from his face.The Hebrew word for “flee” here comes from the same root, נוּס (n-w-s), as the flight in Deuteronomy. Psalm 68 joins that flight to scattering, opening up the image of the enemies’ one-way advance becoming a retreat in every direction.
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