What Does Deuteronomy 6:10 Mean?
And it shall be, when the LORD your God brings you into the land he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you great and good cities which you did not build.
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 be, when the LORD thy God shall have brought thee into the land which he sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give thee great and goodly cities, which thou buildedst not,THE KEY
The gift is a place already standing when you arrive, so entry does not begin with proving you can build it.
THE MEANING
You are brought into good that is already standing, into a place you did not construct. Here, receiving comes before your labor: you enter what is given without making your right to enter depend on having built it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
You must build every good place yourself before you are allowed to enter it.
THE ROOT
בָּנִיתָ
bānîtā
GROWS FROM
בנה
to build, construct, establish
“buildedst” in this verse is bānîtā. The same root names building and what is built, so the negation reaches beyond a single task: the cities are not the result of your own construction. The verse centers your arrival in a built place you receive, rather than a place you must first make.
ALSO GROWS
bānāh: he built
בָּנָה
This active form makes explicit the work the verse says you did not perform.
nibnāh: it was built
נִבְנָה
This passive form keeps attention on the built city you receive, without claiming its construction as your own.
לָתֵת
latet
GROWS FROM
נתן
to give, set, place
“to give” in this verse is latet. The verse’s giving holds both gift and placement: the cities are set before you as something received. The gift carries you into settled provision without making your own construction its condition.
ALSO GROWS
nātan: he gave
נָתַן
This verb form names the same act of giving that brings the cities within reach.
netinah: giving; the act of giving
נְתִינָה
This noun makes the grant an act of giving, not merely a possession.
יְבִיאֲךָ
yevi'akha
GROWS FROM
בוא
to come, enter; in a causative form, to bring
“brings” in this verse is yevi'akha. The verb is a causative form of coming: you are brought into the land, carried into an arrival. Its branches hold both the movement of entering and the entrance itself.
ALSO GROWS
bōʾ: to come, enter
בּוֹא
The basic verb names the movement into the land that the verse presents as an arrival.
māvōʾ: entrance, entry
מָבוֹא
This noun from the same root gives the arrival a threshold: you are brought into a place.
THE PATTERN
A gift can carry you into provision whose labor you did not perform.
For all the land that you see, I will give it to you, and to your seed for the ages.And he gave them the lands of nations, and they took hold of the toil of the peoples.I sent you to reap what you did not toil for. Others toiled, and you have entered into their toil.THE THREAD
And I have given you a land you did not toil for, and cities you did not build, and you settle in them. From vineyards and olive groves you did not plant, you eat.Joshua repeats “cities which ye built not” with the same Hebrew root בנה (bānāh, to build), then extends the gift to land, vineyards, and food. The repeated root opens Deuteronomy’s image into a whole life of dwelling in provision whose labor is already carried.
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