What Does Deuteronomy 1:26 Mean in the King James?
Notwithstanding ye would not go up, but rebelled against the commandment of the LORD your God:
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
In the Hebrew, “commandment” is פִּי (pi, “mouth of”): the refusal meets the LORD’s speaking voice as it gives direction.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks into the moment when you can be called toward a next step and still refuse to move. It names that refusal as rebellion against the LORD’s mouth, against a voice that has already given direction.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that refusal is only an absence of movement: here, declining to go is itself named as a response to the voice.
THE ROOT
וַתַּמְרוּ
vattamru
GROWS FROM
מרה
to resist or rebel
וַתַּמְרוּ (vattamru, “you rebelled”) grows from מרה (marah, “resist or rebel”), which also appears as מְרִי (meri, “rebellion”) and מַמְרִים (mamrim, “those who rebel”). It stands against פִּי (pi, “mouth of”) in the Hebrew phrase: rebellion is the response to the LORD’s spoken direction.
ALSO GROWS
meri: rebellion
מְרִי
The noun names the resistance expressed here as an act.
mamrim: those who rebel
מַמְרִים
This form describes people in a state of resistance, linking the single refusal to a broader pattern.
לַעֲלֹת
la’alot
GROWS FROM
עלה
to rise or go up
The refusal is directed at an ascent: the movement upward is already before the people, but they do not take it. This root also names an עֹלָה (olah, “burnt offering”), something that rises; the shared root makes the image of rising audible beneath the plain direction to go up.
ALSO GROWS
aliyah: ascent
עֲלִיָּה
It names the upward movement the verse says they refuse.
olah: burnt offering; that which rises
עֹלָה
It carries the same upward root, deepening the verse’s image of a refused ascent.
THE PATTERN
A word heard becomes a threshold: the response to it shapes whether the offered way is entered.
Only rebel not ye against the LORD, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us: their defence is departed from them, and the LORD is with us: fear them not.So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.THE THREAD
Likewise when the LORD sent you from Kadesh-barnea, saying, Go up and possess the land which I have given you; then ye rebelled against the commandment of the LORD your God, and ye believed him not, nor hearkened to his voice.The same root מרה (marah, “resist or rebel”) appears in both verses. This parallel line names the refusal’s inner shape: not trusting and not listening to the voice.
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