What Does Deuteronomy 7:23 Mean?
But the LORD your God will give them to you, and will throw them into a great uproar until they are wiped out.
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
But the LORD thy God shall deliver them unto thee, and shall destroy them with a mighty destruction, until they be destroyed.THE KEY
The Hebrew repeats the H-M-M root in an act of confusion and a great tumult, then names destruction as the endpoint.
THE MEANING
The verse places you in a scene where God gives a people over to you, and upheaval continues until they are destroyed. The repeated H-M-M sound makes the disorder audible; the final verb states the lethal outcome plainly.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that deliverance is always gentle or leaves the opposing side unharmed: here, the verse names their destruction as the endpoint.
THE ROOT
וְהָמָם
wehāmām
GROWS FROM
המם
To confuse, discomfit, or throw into tumult.
“throw them into a great uproar” in this verse is wehāmām. The verb and noun repeat the same root: he throws them into confusion with a great confusion. The verse lets upheaval sound through the sentence before naming destruction as its outcome.
ALSO GROWS
hāmam: To confuse or discomfit.
הָמַם
This is the verb form of the root heard in the verse’s upheaval.
mehumāh: Confusion or tumult.
מְהוּמָה
This noun repeats the verb’s root, making the action and the resulting turmoil echo one another.
וּנְתָנָם
ūnetānām
GROWS FROM
נתן
To give, set, or place.
“give them to you” in this verse is ūnetānām. The Hebrew verb behind “deliver” is natan: to give, set, or place. The verse opens with God placing them before you, before describing the confusion and destruction.
ALSO GROWS
natan: To give, set, or place.
נָתַן
This is the verb’s seed: the people are given over and placed before the addressee.
mattanāh: Gift or present.
מַתָּנָה
The noun carries the same seed of giving, illuminating the basic action expressed by natan.
הִשָּׁמְדָם
hiššāmdām
GROWS FROM
שמד
To destroy or bring to ruin.
“wiped out” in this verse is hiššāmdām. The final verb comes from a different root than the repeated H-M-M words and states the outcome directly: they are destroyed. That ending keeps the verse’s violence explicit.
ALSO GROWS
shāmad: To destroy or annihilate.
שָׁמַד
This is the root’s basic verb, naming the outcome stated at the end of the verse.
lehašmīd: To destroy or wipe out.
לְהַשְׁמִיד
This form of the same root appears in Esther 3:13, echoing the verse’s explicit endpoint.
THE PATTERN
In these passages, divine intervention throws an opposing force out of order, and that disorder can lead to its defeat.
And it was, in the morning watch, that the LORD looked down upon the camp of the Egyptians in the pillar of fire and of cloud, and threw the camp into uproar.And the LORD set them tumbling before Israel, and struck them down at Gibeon with a great blow, and pursued them along the way that climbs to Beth-horon, and struck them as far as Azekah and Makkedah.He sends his arrows and scatters them; he flashes out lightning in abundance and stirs them into uproar.THE THREAD
And it was, in the morning watch, that the LORD looked down upon the camp of the Egyptians in the pillar of fire and of cloud, and threw the camp into uproar.Exodus uses the same H-M-M root where the KJV says the LORD “troubled” the Egyptian host. It makes the upheaval in Deuteronomy audible, while Deuteronomy’s final verb states that the confusion ends in destruction.
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