What Does Deuteronomy 16:7 Mean in the King James?
And thou shalt roast and eat it in the place which the LORD thy God shall choose: and thou shalt turn in the morning, and go unto thy tents.
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 hinge is a turn: the chosen-place meal gives way, at morning, to a return toward the tents.
THE MEANING
The verse holds two movements together: a meal in the place God chooses, then a turn at morning toward the tents. The chosen gathering has a clear endpoint, and the return to ordinary dwelling belongs to the same rhythm.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that a chosen gathering must replace ordinary dwelling dissolves here: the verse ends by sending the eater back to the tents.
THE ROOT
וּפָנִיתָ
ûpānîtā
GROWS FROM
פנה
to turn, face, or turn aside
The verb names a change of direction that carries the eater from the chosen place toward the tents. The turn is followed by walking, making the return a bodily movement.
ALSO GROWS
pānāh: he turned or turned aside
פָּנָה
This basic form makes clear that the verse’s movement begins with a directed change of orientation.
pĕniyyāh: turning or approach
פְּנִיָּה
This noun preserves the root’s sense of turning toward something, illuminating the reorientation in the verse.
יִבְחַר
yivḥar
GROWS FROM
בחר
to choose or select
“choose” in this verse is yivḥar. The place is marked by the same root found in words for a chosen one and a choice selection. The meal is anchored in selection, while the turn at morning carries the eater from that chosen place back toward the tents.
ALSO GROWS
bĕḥîr: chosen one
בְּחִיר
This branch shows the root naming what is selected, as the verse’s place is selected by God.
mivḥār: choice or choicest selection
מִבְחָר
This branch keeps the sense of selection inside the meal’s chosen setting.
THE PATTERN
An encounter has a place and a point of departure, carrying people back into their dwelling or community.
And the LORD went his way, as soon as he had left communing with Abraham: and Abraham returned unto his place.And they rose up the same hour, and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered together, and them that were with them,Then the disciples went away again unto their own home.THE THREAD
But at the place which the LORD thy God shall choose to place his name in, there thou shalt sacrifice the passover at even, at the going down of the sun, at the season that thou camest forth out of Egypt.The same Hebrew root בחר (b-ḥ-r, “choose”) appears as יִבְחַר (yivḥar, “shall choose”) in both verses. Verse 16:6 places the Passover at sunset in the chosen place; this verse carries that meal through eating into the morning turn toward home.
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