What Does Deuteronomy 31:16 Mean?
And the LORD said to Moses, Behold, you are lying down with your fathers, and this people will rise up and go whoring after the unrecognized gods of the land into whose midst they are coming, and they will let go of me and break my covenant which I have cut with them.
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 the LORD said unto Moses, Behold, thou shalt sleep with thy fathers; and this people will rise up, and go a whoring after the gods of the strangers of the land, whither they go to be among them, and will forsake me, and break my covenant which I have made with them.THE KEY
The verse names idolatry as sexual betrayal: choosing rival gods is not a harmless change of belief but the act of leaving an existing covenant.
THE MEANING
This passage speaks wherever the pull to belong among surrounding powers turns you away from a relationship you already have. It names that turn as deliberate forsaking and covenant-breaking. Guidance can end, and the covenant can still be broken.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that a change in worship is only a private preference: the verse names it as infidelity and a rupture of relationship.
THE ROOT
זָנָה
zānâ
GROWS FROM
זנה
To commit sexual infidelity or act as a prostitute.
“go whoring after” in this verse is zānâ. The Hebrew keeps the sexual betrayal image in the phrase “go a whoring”; it presents following other gods as divided intimacy, not an abstract error. Pursuing rival gods becomes the lived form of leaving the covenant.
ALSO GROWS
zônâ: A prostitute.
זֹנָה
This branch preserves the sexual image behind the verse’s description of pursuing other gods.
zenûnîm: Whoredom or sexual infidelity.
זְנוּנִים
The noun makes clear that the root can name a pattern of betrayal, not just a single act.
מֹשֶׁה
Mōšeh
GROWS FROM
משה
To draw out.
Moses’ name carries the nature of one drawn out; here, the one drawn out is told he will lie down, while the people rise toward other gods. The juxtaposition shows that a leader’s role cannot preserve another person’s covenantal choice.
ALSO GROWS
māšâ: To draw out.
מָשָׁה
This is the verb behind the name’s meaning, as Exodus connects Moses with being drawn out of the water.
Mōšeh: Moses, the one drawn out.
מֹשֶׁה
The name places the drawn-out one at the edge of his own ending as the people rise toward another allegiance.
עָזַב
ʿāzab
GROWS FROM
עזב
To leave behind or abandon.
“let go of” in this verse is ʿāzab. The root makes forsaking a movement away from an existing bond: what is left is not a vague loss but the one left behind. Here, the object is “me,” and the covenant is the relationship they abandon.
ALSO GROWS
ʿāzab: To leave, leave behind, or abandon.
עָזַב
This verb names the departure from the LORD directly.
ʿăzûbâ: Forsaken or abandoned.
עֲזוּבָה
This form names the state created by leaving, showing the relational cost carried by the root.
THE PATTERN
When loyalty shifts toward rival powers, Scripture describes the shift as relational infidelity that abandons an existing bond.
And also they did not hear and respond to their judges, for they went whoring after other gods and bowed down to them. They turned aside quickly from the way which their fathers walked in, hearing and responding to the commands of the LORD. But they did not do so.For my people have done two evils; they have let go of me, the spring of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, shattered cisterns that cannot grip water.You adulterers and adulteresses, have you not seen that the friendship of the world is hostility toward God? Whoever therefore desires to be a friend of the world stands as an enemy of God.THE THREAD
For my people have done two evils; they have let go of me, the spring of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, shattered cisterns that cannot grip water.The Hebrew verb translated “forsaken” is עָזַב (ʿāzab), the same root used here for “forsake.” Jeremiah gives that departure a picture: the fountain of living water is left for cracked cisterns that cannot hold it, so the turn toward rivals also leaves what sustains.
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