What Does Deuteronomy 2:20 Mean in the King James?
(That also was accounted a land of giants: giants dwelt therein in old time; and the Ammonites call them Zamzummims;
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
“Giants” is a reckoning, and “Zamzummim” is another people’s name: the verse exposes how people are seen through the names placed on them.
THE MEANING
The verse lets you notice the frame through which you see people: they are “accounted” as giants, while the Ammonites call them by another name. A label can shape what stands out to you, but it does not contain the whole person.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a label is the whole truth of the people it names.
THE ROOT
יֵחָשְׁבוּ
yēḥāšəḇū
GROWS FROM
חשב
ḥāšav
to think, reckon, or devise
The word translated “accounted” carries the act of thinking or reckoning, so the category “giants” is also a way of seeing being applied to a people. The root makes that act visible without deciding whether the reckoning is true or false.
ALSO GROWS
maḥăšāḇāh: thought, plan
מַחְשָׁבָה
A reckoning begins as a way of thinking; this branch reveals the thought inside the act of accounting.
ḥešbōn: account, reckoning
חֶשְׁבּוֹן
The same root names the accounting itself, showing how a people can be measured through a category.
יִקְרְאוּ
yiqrəʾū
GROWS FROM
קרא
qārāʾ
to call, proclaim, or read aloud
The Ammonites do not merely have a word for this people; they call them by it. Since the same root also carries the sense of reading or proclaiming, the name is a spoken declaration of how they are seen.
ALSO GROWS
miqrāʾ: reading, proclamation, or convocation
מִקְרָא
This branch shows the public, declared quality of a call: a name makes a way of seeing audible.
qōrēʾ: one who calls or reads
קֹרֵא
The caller is an active participant in the naming; the verse identifies who gives this people their name.
THE PATTERN
A name or reckoning becomes a lens through which a person or people are seen.
And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.And the Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, and all kings thy glory: and thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the LORD shall name.And he brought him to Jesus. And when Jesus beheld him, he said, Thou art Simon the son of Jona: thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation, A stone.THE THREAD
And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.The Hebrew verb translated “accounted” here and “counted” there both grow from חשב (ḥāšav), to think or reckon. The shared root makes the act of reckoning visible in both verses, whether it names a people as giants or trust as righteousness.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us