What Does Deuteronomy 15:7 Mean in the King James?
If there be among you a poor man of one of thy brethren within any of thy gates in thy land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not harden thine heart, nor shut thine hand from thy poor brother:
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 traces one contraction from a heart made firm (אמץ) to a hand drawn shut (קפץ).
THE MEANING
Need is present within the shared circle, among your kin, inside your gates, in the land received as a gift. The verse links an inward hardening of the heart with an outward closing of the hand, making material withholding visible as inner contraction. Your brother’s need is part of the life named as among you.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie it undoes is that a closed hand can coexist with an open heart; the verse binds the two responses together.
THE ROOT
תְּאַמֵּץ
təʾammēṣ
GROWS FROM
א־מ־ץ
ʾ-m-ṣ
To be strong or firm; in this form, to make firm or strengthen.
The verb behind harden belongs to the same root used for strength and courage. That root can make feeble knees firm in Isaiah 35:3, while here that firmness is forbidden when it sets the heart against a needy brother.
ALSO GROWS
veʾĕmaṣ: Be courageous, be strong (Joshua 1:7).
וֶאֱמַץ
The same firmness can appear as courage; here it becomes harmful when the heart is made unyielding toward need.
ʾammēṣū: Make firm, confirm the feeble knees (Isaiah 35:3).
אַמֵּצוּ
The root can describe strength that supports the weak; Deuteronomy shows the heart’s firmness turned in the opposite direction.
תִּקְפֹּץ
tiqpoṣ
GROWS FROM
ק־פ־ץ
q-p-ṣ
To close, contract, or draw together.
The root names a physical contraction: the hand draws shut instead of releasing what it holds. The same root describes kings shutting their mouths in Isaiah 52:15, carrying that image of closure from the hand to the mouth.
ALSO GROWS
tiqpoṣ: You close or contract your hand (Deuteronomy 15:7).
תִּקְפֹּץ
The contraction is made visible in the very hand that could extend provision.
yiqpeṣu: They will shut their mouths (Isaiah 52:15).
יִקְפְּצוּ
The same root closes the mouths of kings, showing its image of drawing shut across different parts of the body.
THE PATTERN
Another person’s need exposes whether the inward response opens into concrete provision.
Whoso stoppeth his ears at the cry of the poor, he also shall cry himself, but shall not be heard.Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?THE THREAD
For the poor shall never cease out of the land: therefore I command thee, saying, Thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy, in thy land.The word translated needy here, אֶבְיוֹן (ʾevyon), is the same word translated poor in verse 7, and brother, hand, and land return. Verse 7 names the closing movement; this verse opens its opposite, making the repeated need the hinge between a contracted hand and one opened wide.
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