What Does Deuteronomy 9:2 Mean?
A people great and tall, the children of the Anakim, whom you have known, and of whom you have heard it said, “Who can stand before the children of Anak?”
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
A people great and tall, the children of the Anakims, whom thou knowest, and of whom thou hast heard say, Who can stand before the children of Anak!THE KEY
The verse separates encounter from reputation: you know the Anakim, but the claim that no one can stand before them reaches you as reported speech.
THE MEANING
A real threat can grow larger through what people say about it. The verse holds two things together: knowing the people directly and hearing the repeated question of who can stand before them.
THE ROOT
שָׁמַעְתָּ
shamata
GROWS FROM
שמע
To hear or listen; the root also gives words for a report or news.
The question “Who can stand?” arrives as something heard and repeated. The root’s branch for a report makes the verse’s distinction vivid: the threat is known, while its sweeping reputation travels in speech.
ALSO GROWS
shemuah: Report, news
שְׁמוּעָה
The question about who can stand is presented as something people say about the Anakim.
shama: Hear, listen
שָׁמַע
This is the verb behind “thou hast heard,” marking the claim as received speech.
יָדַעְתָּ
yadata
GROWS FROM
ידע
To know, recognize, or perceive through encounter.
“whom you have known” in this verse is yadata. The verse uses yada for the people you know, then a different root for what you have heard said about them. It keeps personal knowledge and circulating fear from collapsing into one thing.
ALSO GROWS
da'at: Knowledge, understanding
דַּעַת
This noun carries the knowing that the verse sets beside a report heard from others.
madda: Knowledge, understanding
מַדָּע
This branch preserves the root’s sense of what is known or understood, distinct from what is merely repeated.
יִתְיַצֵּב
yityatzev
GROWS FROM
יצב
To take a position, stand firm, or be stationed.
“stand” in this verse is yityatzev. The verb asks who can take a position before the Anakim and hold it. Its root also forms the word for a standing pillar, so the question reaches beyond physical height to whether anyone can hold a place in front of them.
ALSO GROWS
nitzav: Standing, stationed
נִצָּב
This branch emphasizes taking a position, the force of the question “Who can stand?”
matzevah: Standing pillar or stone
מַצֵּבָה
The image of something set upright echoes the question of who can remain in place before such a formidable presence.
THE PATTERN
Scripture uses the question of who can stand to mark the meeting between human limits and a power that exceeds them.
If you, LORD, mark crookednesses, O Lord, who can stand?Who are you to judge another's servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will be held upright, for God is able to make him stand.For the great day of their anger comes, and who is able to stand?THE THREAD
And Moses said to the people, Do not fear, take your stand, and see the deliverance of the LORD, which he will do for you today; for the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you will never see them again for the ages.The same yatsav root, י־צ־ב (yatsav, stand or take one’s position), appears in “stand still.” Here the LORD’s deliverance is joined to standing in the presence of a threat, opening Deuteronomy’s question beyond the size of the force alone.
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