What Does Deuteronomy 15:8 Mean in the King James?
But thou shalt open thine hand wide unto him, and shalt surely lend him sufficient for his need, in that which he wanteth.
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 verb for “open” is repeated before lending appears, making an open hand the passage between another person’s lack and provision.
THE MEANING
This verse meets you where another person’s lack is visible: the hand opens toward them, and the lending is measured by what is missing to them. Provision takes the shape of enough for the need in front of you, not a gesture measured only by what you can spare.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the idea that any amount of giving is enough simply because something has been handed over; the measure here is what meets the person’s actual lack.
THE ROOT
פָּתֹחַ תִּפְתַּח
pātoach tiphtaḥ
GROWS FROM
פתח
To open or unfasten.
“open wide” in this verse is pātoach tiphtaḥ. The Hebrew repeats the opening verb before it names the loan. The image begins with a hand made accessible, so provision moves through an opening rather than remaining held back.
ALSO GROWS
petaḥ: doorway, entrance
פֶּתַח
A doorway is an opening that gives passage; here, the open hand gives passage to what another person needs.
maphteaḥ: key
מַפְתֵּחַ
A key opens what is closed; this branch echoes the verse’s picture of an opened hand as access to provision.
יֶחְסַר
yeḥsar
GROWS FROM
חסר
To be lacking or short.
“wanteth” in this verse is yeḥsar. The phrase names the person’s lack twice: the lending is to be sufficient for “his need,” that which “is lacking” to him. The root makes the measure concrete, the provision corresponds to what is missing for this person.
ALSO GROWS
ḥaser: lacking
חָסֵר
This form describes the state the verse addresses: something necessary is missing.
maḥsor: lack, need
מַחְסוֹר
This noun appears in the verse as “his need,” tying the act of lending to the recipient’s actual shortage.
THE PATTERN
Provision meets a person’s concrete need through what an open hand makes available.
Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine hand to do it.And laid them down at the apostles’ feet: and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need.THE THREAD
Thou openest thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing.The Hebrew verb פתח (pataḥ, open) appears in both verses: here, the hand opens toward a person in need; there, God’s hand opens to satisfy every living thing. The shared root lets this human act of provision echo the image of provision from God.
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