What Does Deuteronomy 2:6 Mean in the King James?
Ye shall buy meat of them for money, that ye may eat; and ye shall also buy water of them for money, that ye may drink.
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 translated “buy” for water also means “dig,” so the verse hides a picture of thirst met by opening a way to the source.
THE MEANING
You need food and water, and the verse names both needs plainly: you buy food and eat it, buy water and drink it. Provision reaches you through other people and an ordinary exchange, then becomes nourishment as you take it in.
THE ROOT
תִּכְרוּ
tikru
GROWS FROM
כרה
karah
Dig or excavate; the verb also carries the sense of procuring water.
The verb behind “buy” water belongs to כרה (karah, “dig”), so English “buy” conceals an image of reaching water by opening the ground. The verse pairs it with a different verb for buying food, giving water access the feel of a source opened.
ALSO GROWS
karah: Dig, excavate.
כָּרָה
This is the concrete sense beneath the water-purchase verb: opening the ground to reach what lies below.
karita: Dug, opened.
כָּרִיתָ
Psalm 40:6 uses this form for ears God has “opened,” extending digging into an image of an opened channel.
תִּשְׁבְּרוּ
tishberu
GROWS FROM
שבר
shabar
Break or break apart; in the grain-trade sense, buy or deal in grain.
The word behind “buy” food belongs to a family that holds breaking and grain provisions together. English renders it as a plain transaction, while the Hebrew retains the grain-trade texture of what is being acquired.
ALSO GROWS
shavar: Break, shatter.
שָׁבַר
This familiar sense of the root sits alongside its grain-trading sense in the food-purchase verb.
shever: Grain, provisions.
שֶׁבֶר
This noun names the grain or provisions bought under the food verb’s market sense.
THE PATTERN
Food and water are concrete needs met through tangible provision.
And gavest them bread from heaven for their hunger, and broughtest forth water for them out of the rock for their thirst, and promisedst them that they should go in to possess the land which thou hadst sworn to give them.Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?THE THREAD
Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required.The Hebrew root behind “buy” water here is also used in Psalm 40:6 for ears God has “opened.” The shared image lets the water purchase resonate with a channel made accessible to receive.
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