What Does Deuteronomy 20:20 Mean in the King James?
Only the trees which thou knowest that they be not trees for meat, thou shalt destroy and cut them down; and thou shalt build bulwarks against the city that maketh war with thee, until it be subdued.
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
Even in a siege, a tree that feeds life is not interchangeable with wood that feeds war.
THE MEANING
Even amid the drive to bring a city down, food-bearing trees are distinguished from material for war. The verse holds two realities together: a siege consumes what can serve it, while nourishment remains more than military supply.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Whatever can be used to secure victory may be spent, including what sustains life.
THE ROOT
מַאֲכָל
ma'akhal
GROWS FROM
אכל
ʾ-k-l
Eat, consume
The Hebrew word for food grows from the verb “to eat,” naming the tree by the nourishment it provides. The KJV’s “meat” means food here, and that edible yield is what sets these trees apart from material for the siege.
ALSO GROWS
akhal: Eat, consume
אָכַל
The verb shows the action contained in מַאֲכָל: this tree yields what can be eaten.
okhel: Food, nourishment
אֹכֶל
This related noun keeps the focus on provision, the quality that makes the tree distinct in the verse.
רִדְתָּהּ
redetah
GROWS FROM
ירד
y-r-d
Descend, go down
The Hebrew phrase pictures the city’s going down, giving “subdued” a physical image of descent. The same root can describe coming down, so English hides the shared movement beneath the city’s defeat.
ALSO GROWS
yarad: Descend, go down
יָרַד
This verb is the root form behind the city’s “going down” in the verse.
yeridah: Descent, going down
יְרִידָה
This related noun makes the physical direction in the idea of being subdued easier to see.
THE PATTERN
A tree’s life-giving yield marks it as provision, not interchangeable material.
And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.When thou shalt besiege a city a long time, in making war against it to take it, thou shalt not destroy the trees thereof by forcing an axe against them: for thou mayest eat of them, and thou shalt not cut them down (for the tree of the field is man’s life) to employ them in the siege:In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.THE THREAD
And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded.The word behind “subdued” comes from ירד (yarad), “descend, go down”; Genesis uses the same root when the LORD “came down” to see a city and tower. That shared root opens “subdued” into a physical image: here, the city goes down under the siege.
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