What Does Deuteronomy 1:39 Mean in the King James?
Moreover your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, and your children, which in that day had no knowledge between good and evil, they shall go in thither, and unto them will I give it, and they shall possess it.
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
The ones named as prey are the ones who inherit.
THE MEANING
The label of prey does not determine your end: the very children so described are the ones who enter and receive the land. They have not yet learned to discern good from evil, yet the text places the gift in their future anyway. You can be within reach of a given future before you fully understand the world in front of you.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that being vulnerable, young, or unknowing means you are destined to be consumed and kept outside the inheritance.
THE ROOT
יִירָשׁוּהָ
yîrāšûhā
GROWS FROM
י־ר־שׁ
y-r-sh
to inherit or take possession; in a causative form, to dispossess
The verb rendered “possess” also means “inherit,” joining receiving what is given with taking possession of it. The children predicted to be plundered become the ones who enter and possess the land.
ALSO GROWS
yāraš: inherit, take possession
יָרַשׁ
This is the verb family used for “possess it” here, holding inheritance and possession together.
hôrîš: dispossess, drive out
הוֹרִישׁ
This causative form shows that the same root can describe possession arriving through displacement.
môrāšâ: heritage, inheritance, possession
מוֹרָשָׁה
The noun keeps the root’s sense of an inheritance that is held as a possession.
לָבַז
lāḇaz
GROWS FROM
ב־ז־ז
b-z-z
to plunder, seize as spoil
“prey” in this verse is lāḇaz. The phrase pictures the children as spoil in someone else’s hands, while the end of the verse makes them the ones taking possession. The verse reverses who is acted upon and who inherits.
ALSO GROWS
baz: spoil, plunder
בַּז
This noun gives the force of the predicted fate: being treated as something to be seized.
bāzaz: plunder, seize as spoil
בָּזַז
The verb names the act feared for the children, which the verse’s ending overturns.
יָדְעוּ
yāḏəʿû
GROWS FROM
י־ד־ע
y-d-ʿ
to know, perceive, recognize
“know” in this verse is yāḏəʿû. This verb can carry the sense of knowing through perception and encounter. The children are described as not yet discerning good from evil, yet the verse still places entrance and possession in their future.
ALSO GROWS
yādaʿ: know, perceive
יָדַע
This is the verb from which the verse’s form “they knew” comes.
daʿat: knowledge, understanding
דַּעַת
This noun from the same root echoes the children’s not-yet-formed discernment.
THE PATTERN
The future of what is given can belong to the vulnerable or unknowing, despite the fate others predict for them.
But the meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.THE THREAD
But the meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.The Hebrew verb rendered “inherit” here comes from the same root as “possess” in Deuteronomy 1:39. In both verses, those who seem least able to secure the future are the ones who receive it.
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