What Does Deuteronomy 31:13 Mean?
And their children, who have not yet known anything, may hear and respond, and learn in awe of the LORD your God, all the days you are living upon the ground where you cross over the Jordan to take hold of it.
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 that their children, which have not known any thing, may hear, and learn to fear the LORD your God, as long as ye live in the land whither ye go over Jordan to possess it.THE KEY
Awe of the LORD is not a prerequisite to hearing; it is what hearing and learning awaken in those who do not yet know.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks to the place in you that does not yet know: hearing can precede understanding, and awe of the LORD is learned through that hearing. The learning continues across the span of life in the place you inhabit.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
You must already understand God before you can learn reverence toward him. The verse places those who do not yet know at the beginning of learning, not outside it.
THE ROOT
לְיִרְאָה
yir'ah
GROWS FROM
ירא
To fear, revere, or stand in awe.
Because the LORD is the one revered, yir’ah carries the sense of awe here. The verse presents that awe as something learned through hearing, not an emotion the children must already possess.
ALSO GROWS
yirah: Awe, reverence, or fear.
יִרְאָה
This is the noun in the verse: the children are learning a way of seeing the LORD.
nora: Awe-inspiring; awesome.
נוֹרָא
This branch shows the root can describe what evokes awe, illuminating the relationship between the LORD and the reverence learned here.
יִשְׁמְעוּ
yishme'u
GROWS FROM
שמע
To hear or listen, with the sense of attending and responding.
“hear and respond” in this verse is yishme'u. English ‘hear’ can sound like sound merely reaching the ear, while shama can include a response. Here hearing opens directly into learning, so the listening is already participatory.
ALSO GROWS
shema: Hear and respond.
שְׁמַע
This branch reveals that the children’s hearing can carry them into an answering relationship with what they hear.
shemuah: A report or something heard.
שְׁמוּעָה
The heard message becomes the material from which their learning takes shape.
יָדְעוּ
yade'u
GROWS FROM
ידע
To know, recognize, or perceive.
“known” in this verse is yade'u. Yada can name knowing by encounter, not only holding information. The children’s not-yet-knowing is therefore a beginning: hearing can lead into recognition and learned awe.
ALSO GROWS
da'at: Knowledge or understanding.
דַּעַת
This branch keeps knowledge connected to the act of knowing, rather than reducing it to facts possessed in advance.
yodea: Knowing; one who knows.
יוֹדֵעַ
It makes the verse’s movement visible: those who do not yet know can become knowers through what they hear and learn.
THE PATTERN
Hearing the LORD’s words begins a response that is learned and carried forward.
Especially the day you stood before the LORD your God in Horeb, when the LORD said to me, Assemble the people to me, and I will make them hear my words, that they may learn awe of me all the days they live upon the earth, and that they may train their children.Come, children, and hear and respond to me. I train you in the awe of the LORD.So then trust comes out of hearing, and hearing comes through the word of God.THE THREAD
Come, children, and hear and respond to me. I train you in the awe of the LORD.Psalm 34 uses the same roots for ‘hearken’ and ‘teach’ as Deuteronomy uses for ‘hear’ and ‘learn’; the word for ‘fear’ also comes from yare. It makes the same movement plain: children hear, then learn awe.
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