What Does Deuteronomy 2:30 Mean in the King James?
But Sihon king of Heshbon would not let us pass by him: for the LORD thy God hardened his spirit, and made his heart obstinate, that he might deliver him into thy hand, as appeareth this day.
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 text makes hardening serve a handover: Sihon’s refusal is strengthened as the path by which he is given into Israel’s hand.
THE MEANING
The verse holds refusal and divine agency in one frame: the LORD makes Sihon’s resolve hard, and that hardening serves his being given into another’s hand. The transfer remains concrete and violent; the verse does not soften it.
THE ROOT
הִקְשָׁה
hiqshah
GROWS FROM
קשה
To be hard, severe, or difficult to move.
“hardened” in this verse is hiqshah. The verse’s hardening belongs to a root that also names hardness and stubbornness. The resistance here is not simply a refusal; it becomes difficult to yield.
ALSO GROWS
qasheh: Hard, severe, difficult.
קָשֶׁה
This adjective shares the root’s sense of resistance and difficulty, illuminating how the refusal becomes fixed.
qeshi: Hardness or stubbornness.
קְשִׁי
This noun brings out the resistant quality carried by the same root.
וְאִמֵּץ
ve’immets
GROWS FROM
אמץ
To be strong, firm, or resolute; to make firm or strengthen.
“made ... obstinate” in this verse is ve’immets. The word rendered “obstinate” draws on the language of strength and firmness. That same root can describe courage elsewhere, so the context shows the direction this firmness takes: here, it serves resistance.
ALSO GROWS
amats: Be strong or courageous.
אָמַץ
The root can name strength that supports courage, showing that firmness takes its character from what it serves.
immets: Strengthen or make firm.
אִמֵּץ
This causative form closely matches the verse’s action: a resolve is made firm.
תִּתּוֹ
titto
GROWS FROM
נתן
To give, set, or place.
The form translated “deliver” comes from the root natan, “give”: the Hebrew says to give him into your hand. That makes the ending a concrete transfer of a person into another’s power.
ALSO GROWS
natan: Give, set, or place.
נָתַן
This verb supplies the root sense beneath the form translated “deliver.”
mattanah: Gift.
מַתָּנָה
This related noun also grows from the language of giving, making the root’s transfer of something into another’s possession visible.
THE PATTERN
These verses present hardened resolve as something God directs toward a decisive outcome.
And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, that he shall follow after them; and I will be honoured upon Pharaoh, and upon all his host; that the Egyptians may know that I am the LORD. And they did so.For it was of the LORD to harden their hearts, that they should come against Israel in battle, that he might destroy them utterly, and that they might have no favour, but that he might destroy them, as the LORD commanded Moses.Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.THE THREAD
Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the LORD thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.The verb rendered “made ... obstinate” shares its root with Joshua’s “be ... of a good courage.” The same root describes firmness in both verses, while the context directs that firmness differently: toward resistance here and courage there.
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