What Does Deuteronomy 11:11 Mean in the King James?
But the land, whither ye go to possess it, is a land of hills and valleys, and drinketh water of the rain of heaven:
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 land is a living receiver: it drinks the rain that heaven sends.
THE MEANING
You are part of a world where the ground lives by receiving water from beyond itself. The verse pictures heaven’s rain entering the land as drink, across hills and valleys. The land’s varied shape participates in that provision.
THE ROOT
תִּשְׁתֶּה
tishteh
GROWS FROM
שׁתה
sh-t-h
to drink
“drinketh” in this verse is tishteh. The land is said to drink, using the same verb used for a person taking a drink. English makes the land seem like scenery; the Hebrew gives it the act of a living receiver.
ALSO GROWS
shatah: to drink
שָׁתָה
This is the root verb in its dictionary form, making the land’s action plain.
mishteh: a drinking feast
מִשְׁתֶּה
The same root extends drinking into a shared meal, linking reception with abundance.
לִמְטַר
limtar
GROWS FROM
מטר
m-ṭ-r
rain; to rain
The water arrives as rain from heaven, an action that reaches the land from above. The verse places the land’s drinking within that movement of provision.
ALSO GROWS
matar: rain
מָטָר
This is the noun naming the water the land drinks.
himtir: to cause rain to fall
הִמְטִיר
This verb form expresses rain as something sent down to the land.
בְּקָעוֹת
beqa'ot
GROWS FROM
בקע
b-q-ʿ
to split or cleave open
The Hebrew word for valleys grows from the idea of cleaving or splitting open. Beside the hills, these clefts make the land’s changing shape part of the landscape that drinks the rain.
ALSO GROWS
baqa': to split, cleave, or break open
בָּקַע
This is the action at the root of the valley word.
biq'ah: a valley or broad plain
בִּקְעָה
The landscape feature carries the sense of an opened or cleft place.
THE PATTERN
The land’s life unfolds through water it receives from beyond itself.
Thou visitest the earth, and waterest it: thou greatly enrichest it with the river of God, which is full of water: thou preparest them corn, when thou hast so provided for it.That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads.THE THREAD
And let it come to pass, that the damsel to whom I shall say, Let down thy pitcher, I pray thee, that I may drink; and she shall say, Drink, and I will give thy camels drink also: let the same be she that thou hast appointed for thy servant Isaac; and thereby shall I know that thou hast shewed kindness unto my master.The Hebrew for “drink” in Deuteronomy and “I may drink” here share the root שׁתה (sh-t-h). The same verb moves from land receiving rain to a person’s ordinary thirst, making the land’s life concrete.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us