What Does Deuteronomy 2:7 Mean in the King James?
For the LORD thy God hath blessed thee in all the works of thy hand: he knoweth thy walking through this great wilderness: these forty years the LORD thy God hath been with thee; thou hast lacked nothing.
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
God’s blessing is not an escape from the wilderness; it is a presence that knows your path through it and leaves you lacking nothing.
THE MEANING
Your path is wilderness, and God knows your walking through it and is with you in the passage. The blessing reaches the work of your hands, and its measure is plain: you lack nothing.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Still being in a wilderness means God has forgotten you or withheld what you need.
THE ROOT
חָסַרְתָּ
ḥāsartā you lacked
GROWS FROM
חסר
ḥ-s-r
To be lacking, deficient, or diminished.
“lacked” in this verse is ḥāsartā you lacked. The verse measures the journey by what does not run short. Wilderness and provision coexist: the terrain remains wilderness, while lack does not define the passage.
ALSO GROWS
maḥsor: Want, need, or lack
מַחְסוֹר
This noun names a person’s need, giving “lacked nothing” the sense of lived sufficiency.
ḥesron: Deficiency or lack
חֶסְרוֹן
The same root can name what is wanting, sharpening the verse’s claim that nothing is lacking.
לֶכְתְּךָ
lekhtekha your going
GROWS FROM
הלך
To walk or go, to move along.
The root holds walking and going together, keeping the phrase in motion. God knows the passage as it unfolds, not only the destination at its end.
ALSO GROWS
hālak: To walk or go
הָלַךְ
This is the basic verb behind “thy walking,” carrying both movement and the act of going.
hithallēkh: To walk about or conduct oneself
הִתְהַלֵּךְ
The same root can describe an ongoing course; here, “through this great wilderness” makes that course a journey.
בֵּרַכְךָ
berakhkha he blessed
GROWS FROM
ברך
To bless; the word family also carries the image of bending the knee.
The blessing reaches the work of your hands even as you walk through the wilderness. The related word for knee gives blessing an embodied echo of bending and receiving, while the verse itself says plainly, “blessed.”
ALSO GROWS
berakhah: Blessing
בְּרָכָה
This noun keeps the word family’s direct sense of blessing visible in the verse.
berekh: Knee
בֶּרֶךְ
The shared consonants add an image of bending to the word family without changing the verse’s meaning of blessing.
THE PATTERN
God’s provision accompanies people along the path and is measured by their not being left lacking.
And when they did mete it with an omer, he that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack; they gathered every man according to his eating.A Psalm of David. The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.THE THREAD
The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger: but they that seek the LORD shall not want any good thing.The phrase “shall not want” uses יֶחְסְרוּ (yeḥseru, “they will lack”), from חסר (ḥ-s-r, “to be lacking”), the same root rendered “lacked” here. The verse opens the same claim through the image of the LORD’s presence sustaining people without their lacking what is good.
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