What Does Deuteronomy 11:9 Mean in the King James?
And that ye may prolong your days in the land, which the LORD sware unto your fathers to give unto them and to their seed, a land that floweth with milk and honey.
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 Hebrew joins days lengthened upon the ground to an inheritance described by its flowing provision, making life and the place that sustains it one promise.
THE MEANING
Your days are pictured as lengthening upon adamah, the ground, within an inheritance whose milk and honey flow. Time, soil, and provision belong together: life continues on ground held within a promise that reaches beyond you to your seed. The verse presents lasting life as dwelling in a place that sustains you.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that lasting life is self-made and self-contained: the verse places it within a promise received from those before you and carried toward those who come after.
THE ROOT
תַּאֲרִיכוּ
taʾarikhū
GROWS FROM
ארך
ʾ-r-k
To be long; to lengthen or extend.
“prolong” in this verse is taʾarikhū. The verb means “you lengthen,” and its noun branch אֹרֶךְ (ʾorekh, length) appears again in Deuteronomy 30:20 as “the length of thy days.” The same root lives in אֶרֶךְ אַפַּיִם (ʾerekh appayim, slow to flare), so length can describe both days extended and the space before anger breaks out.
ALSO GROWS
ʾorekh: Length; long duration.
אֹרֶךְ
Deuteronomy 30:20 uses this noun in “the length of thy days,” making explicit the duration compressed into the verb here.
ʾerekh appayim: Slow to flare.
אֶרֶךְ אַפַּיִם
The same root for “long” describes anger delayed; here, that length opens as days extended for life.
הָאֲדָמָה
haʾadamah
GROWS FROM
אדם
ʾ-d-m
Red; the related forms adam (human) and adamah (ground, soil) carry a shared earthward association.
KJV renders both “in the land” and “a land” with the same English word, while Hebrew first says הָאֲדָמָה (haʾadamah, ground or soil) and then אֶרֶץ (ʾerets, land or country). The days lengthen upon the ground, while the inheritance is a country characterized by flow, joining the soil beneath your feet to the promised place of provision.
ALSO GROWS
ʾādām: Human; ground-being.
אָדָם
The shared consonants make the ground in this verse resonate with the human whose life unfolds upon it.
ʾādōm: Red.
אָדֹם
This related form preserves the earthy sound-family behind adamah, even though color is not the verse’s focus.
נִשְׁבַּע
nishbaʿ
GROWS FROM
שׁבע
sh-b-ʿ
To swear an oath.
The verb rendered “sware” shares its consonants with שֶׁבַע (shevaʿ, seven) and שְׁבוּעָה (shevuʿah, oath). The promise is sworn speech, bound to the fathers and carried forward to their seed, rather than an uncertain prospect.
ALSO GROWS
shevaʿ: Seven.
שֶׁבַע
Its shared consonants let the oath in this verse echo with the Hebrew word for seven.
shevuʿah: Oath; sworn pledge.
שְׁבוּעָה
This noun makes explicit the sworn character of the promise attached to the land.
THE PATTERN
Scripture pictures lasting life as duration joined to dwelling in a place of promised well-being.
Ye shall walk in all the ways which the LORD your God hath commanded you, that ye may live, and that it may be well with you, and that ye may prolong your days in the land which ye shall possess.With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him my salvation.That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth.THE THREAD
That thou mayest love the LORD thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he is thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.The same ארך (ʾ-r-k, lengthen) root appears as אֹרֶךְ (ʾorekh, length) in “the length of thy days,” making explicit what “prolong” compresses into a verb. The verse holds that length beside dwelling in the sworn land, showing continued life and its ground together.
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