What Does Deuteronomy 6:18 Mean?
And you shall do what is straight and good in the eyes of the LORD, so that it may go well with you, and so that you may go in and take hold of the good land which the LORD swore to your fathers.
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 thou shalt do that which is right and good in the sight of the LORD: that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest go in and possess the good land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers,THE KEY
The goodness you do, the well-being you receive, and the good land you enter are joined by the verse’s repeating sound of tov.
THE MEANING
Your actions stand before the LORD as right and good, with your well-being and entry into the land sworn to your fathers as their stated horizon. The verse joins the goodness of the way with the goodness of what you enter.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that what is right before the LORD is unrelated to your well-being.
THE ROOT
טוֹב
tov
GROWS FROM
טוב
Good, pleasant, beneficial.
“it may go well” in this verse is tov. The verse uses tov for both what you do and the land you enter, joining the character of the way to the character of its destination. “Well” is יִיטַב (yitav, “be well”), from the distinct but related root יטב; its sound echoes tov without being the same root.
ALSO GROWS
tovah: Good; the feminine form of tov.
טוֹבָה
It describes the good land, whose Hebrew noun eretz is feminine, so the same root marks the destination.
tuv: Goodness, bounty.
טוּב
This noun from the same root brings out the sense of good as something beneficial and received.
יָשָׁר
yashar
GROWS FROM
ישר
Straight, level, upright.
“straight” in this verse is yashar. “Right” carries the image of straightness: a way aligned before the LORD. Beside tov, it distinguishes the straightness of the action from the goodness it leads toward.
ALSO GROWS
yosher: Uprightness, integrity.
יֹשֶׁר
It shows that yashar describes a quality of conduct, not merely a correct answer.
mesharim: Levelness, equity, uprightness.
מֵישָׁרִים
The levelness of this branch echoes a way made straight and fitting.
יָרַשׁ
yarash
GROWS FROM
ירש
Take possession of; inherit.
“take hold of” in this verse is yarash. The land is something you enter and possess, while the verse says it is already bound to an oath. The root holds possession together with inheritance, giving the arrival the shape of receiving what was promised.
ALSO GROWS
yerushah: Inheritance, possession.
יְרֻשָּׁה
It makes explicit the receiving sense contained in possessing the land.
morashah: Inherited possession.
מוֹרָשָׁה
This branch echoes the verse’s movement from oath to entry and possession.
THE PATTERN
Scripture joins goodness in the way with goodness as its intended fruit.
To guard the commandments of the LORD and his statutes, which I command you this day for your good?You are good, and you do good; teach me your statutes.So every good tree makes good fruit, but the rotten tree makes evil fruit.THE THREAD
To guard the commandments of the LORD and his statutes, which I command you this day for your good?The Hebrew tov root in “thy good” is the same root used for “good” and “good land” in Deuteronomy 6:18. The parallel names the instruction’s aim plainly: it is directed toward your good.
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