What Does Deuteronomy 6:16 Mean?
You shall not test the LORD your God, as you tested him at Massah, the testing place.
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
Ye shall not tempt the LORD your God, as ye tempted him in Massah.THE KEY
Massah is what happens when “Is the LORD among us?” becomes a test the LORD is required to pass.
THE MEANING
This verse speaks when the question of God’s nearness becomes a demand for proof. Massah names that demand as testing the LORD, and the name carries the same root as the act. The question beneath it is immediate: “Is the LORD among us, or not?”
WHAT THIS UNDOES
God is present only when he proves himself on demand.
THE ROOT
תְּנַסּוּ
tenassu
GROWS FROM
נ־ס־ה
n-s-h
To test, try, or put to the proof.
The word translated “tempt” is תְּנַסּוּ (tenassu), from נ־ס־ה (n-s-h), “to test or put to the proof.” Massah (מַסָּה) is formed from the same root, joining the testing action to the name that carries it. Hebrew makes the place-name itself a compressed expression of the command.
ALSO GROWS
Massah: Testing or proving; the name of the place.
מַסָּה
The place-name grows from the same testing root as “tempt,” joining the act to the name that carries it.
nissah: Tested or tried; the verb used in Genesis 22:1 when God tests Abraham.
נִסָּה
This branch shows that the root names the act of testing; who tests whom and why comes from the sentence’s context.
THE PATTERN
When God’s nearness is made conditional on a proof demanded of him, the demand becomes a test of the LORD.
And he called the name of the place Massah, the testing, and Meribah, the striving, because of the striving of the children of Israel, and because they tested the LORD, saying, Is the LORD in our midst, or not?When your fathers tested me, tried me, and saw my work.Jesus said to him, Again it is written, You shall not test the LORD your God.THE THREAD
And he called the name of the place Massah, the testing, and Meribah, the striving, because of the striving of the children of Israel, and because they tested the LORD, saying, Is the LORD in our midst, or not?Exodus 17:7 names the act with נַסֹּתָם (nassotam, “their testing”) and the place מַסָּה (Massah, “testing”). The shared root places the question “Is the LORD among us, or not?” inside Deuteronomy’s command.
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