What Does Deuteronomy 14:27 Mean in the King James?
And the Levite that is within thy gates; thou shalt not forsake him; for he hath no part nor inheritance with thee.
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
A person can have no share in your inheritance and still belong within your gates; the verse refuses to let missing property become abandonment.
THE MEANING
You are addressed as someone whose gates include a person with no share or inheritance with you. His lack of a portion does not erase his place among you; the verse holds his presence and your refusal to abandon him together. What you possess is not the measure of who remains within your gates.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that someone who owns no share of what you have can be left outside your care.
THE ROOT
תַעַזְבֶנּוּ
taʿazvennu
GROWS FROM
ע־ז־ב
To leave, abandon, or depart from.
“forsake” in this verse is taʿazvennu. The command uses the root עזב, the language of leaving someone behind. The verse places that word beside the Levite’s lack of an inheritance: the missing share does not make the person someone to leave.
ALSO GROWS
ʿāzav: To leave or depart; Genesis 2:24 uses this verb for leaving father and mother.
עָזַב
The same verb can describe a change in relationship; here its negative form names abandonment as what must not happen.
yaʿazvekha: “He will forsake you,” using the same verb in Deuteronomy 31:6.
יַעַזְבֶךָּ
The shared verb connects the command to remain with someone to the promise that God does not abandon you.
חֵלֶק
ḥēleq
GROWS FROM
ח־ל־ק
To divide or apportion; a חֵלֶק is a share set apart from a whole.
The word for the Levite’s missing “part” names a share made by division. The verse sets an absent allotment beside a present person: what is missing is his portion, not his place among those at the gates.
ALSO GROWS
ḥēleq: A portion, share, or allotted part.
חֵלֶק
This is the share the Levite lacks, while the command against forsaking him remains.
ḥelqāh: A field, plot, or parcel of land.
חֶלְקָה
This related form makes the share concrete as a piece of ground, sharpening the difference between lacking an allotment and being excluded from the gates.
THE PATTERN
A community makes room in its shared provision for people who lack a secure share of their own.
When thou cuttest down thine harvest in thy field, and hast forgot a sheaf in the field, thou shalt not go again to fetch it: it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow: that the LORD thy God may bless thee in all the work of thine hands.And the Levite, (because he hath no part nor inheritance with thee,) and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, which are within thy gates, shall come, and shall eat and be satisfied; that the LORD thy God may bless thee in all the work of thine hand which thou doest.Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.THE THREAD
Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the LORD thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.The same Hebrew verb, עזב (ʿāzav, to leave or abandon), appears in both verses. Deuteronomy 14:27 forbids abandoning the person without an inheritance; Deuteronomy 31:6 speaks of God’s presence as one that does not abandon you.
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