What Does Deuteronomy 2:3 Mean in the King James?
Ye have compassed this mountain long enough: turn you northward.
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 verse names a finish line inside repetition: circling has run its course, and the next movement begins by turning the face.
THE MEANING
A season of circling can reach its limit without making the circling meaningless. This verse holds both truths at once: enough of this orbit, and now a turn toward another direction. Movement begins by facing differently.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that persistence means staying on the same path forever: a route can be complete even after a long season.
THE ROOT
סֹב
sov
GROWS FROM
סבב
s-b-b
To go around, encircle, or turn about.
The word translated “compassed” carries the sense of circling around, so the verse names a repeated route, not simply a delay. English gives the circuit a duration; the Hebrew root makes its shape visible.
ALSO GROWS
sāḇaḇ: To go around or encircle.
סָבַב
It makes the repeated motion in “compassed this mountain” explicit.
sāḇîḇ: Around or surrounding.
סָבִיב
This related form gives the circuit a surrounding shape, as though the route keeps returning around its center.
פְּנוּ
penu
GROWS FROM
פנה
p-n-h
To turn, face, or direct oneself toward.
The Hebrew verb for turning is tied to facing: the change is an act of reorientation. English can make “turn” sound like a bare change of course, while the root brings the face into the movement.
ALSO GROWS
pānîm: Face or presence.
פָּנִים
The face shares this word-family’s link to turning and orientation.
pānāh: To turn, face, or direct oneself toward.
פָּנָה
This verbal form shows that the command is a reorientation toward a new direction.
צָפֹנָה
tsafonah
GROWS FROM
צפן
ts-p-n
To hide, keep, or store away.
“northward” in this verse is tsafonah. The word for “north” belongs to a root-family associated with what is hidden or kept in store. That gives the named direction an echo of the unseen, while the verse still points to a concrete direction of travel.
ALSO GROWS
tsafon: North.
צָפוֹן
This is the directional word at the heart of “northward.”
tsafun: Hidden, kept, or treasured.
צָפוּן
Its shared root lets “northward” carry an echo of what is out of sight.
THE PATTERN
When a season reaches its measure, the next word redirects movement into a new course.
The LORD our God spake unto us in Horeb, saying, Ye have dwelt long enough in this mount: Turn you, and take your journey, and go to the mount of the Amorites, and unto all the places nigh thereunto, in the plain, in the hills, and in the vale, and in the south, and by the sea side, to the land of the Canaanites, and unto Lebanon, unto the great river, the river Euphrates.And the LORD said unto Moses, Wherefore criest thou unto me? speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward:And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.THE THREAD
Then we turned, and took our journey into the wilderness by the way of the Red sea, as the LORD spake unto me: and we compassed mount Seir many days.The same root, סבב (s-b-b, “to circle or surround”), appears in “compassed” here and in the verse immediately before it. That preceding line names the long circuit; this one marks its limit and turns the route toward a new direction.
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