What Does Deuteronomy 22:9 Mean in the King James?
Thou shalt not sow thy vineyard with divers seeds: lest the fruit of thy seed which thou hast sown, and the fruit of thy vineyard, be defiled.
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 “defiled” comes from a root for being set apart as sacred, so the mixed planting changes the harvest’s status.
THE MEANING
The verse shows mixed planting affecting the whole yield: both what grows from the seed and what the vineyard produces become marked as set apart. The Hebrew verb carries the sense of consecration, giving the consequence a sacred dimension.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The assumption that different seeds can share a planting without changing the standing of its harvest is undone: the verse says the yield itself becomes set apart.
THE ROOT
תִּקְדַּשׁ
tiqdash
GROWS FROM
קדש
q-d-sh
to set apart; to consecrate as sacred
The verb translated “defiled” belongs to the root of setting something apart as sacred. The yield is marked with a changed status, so the consequence reaches beyond how the crop looks or grows.
ALSO GROWS
qādôsh: set apart; sacred
קָדוֹשׁ
This familiar branch makes the sacred sense audible in the verb describing the harvest.
miqdāsh: sanctuary; set-apart place
מִקְדָּשׁ
The sanctuary is a place marked as set apart, showing the status carried by this root.
זֶרַע
zeraʿ
GROWS FROM
זרע
z-r-ʿ
seed; to sow; offspring
“seed / sow” in this verse is zeraʿ. English separates “seed” from “sow,” while Hebrew holds them in one root-family. The verse’s wording links the act of planting to what emerges from it: the seed sown and the harvest remain joined.
ALSO GROWS
zāraʿ: to sow
זָרַע
This verb names the planting act in the verse and shares its root with “seed.”
zeraʿ: seed; offspring
זֶרַע
The same word-family can name both what is planted and what follows from it.
THE PATTERN
Creation and cultivation preserve distinctions between kinds, and mixing them changes what the planting yields.
And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.Ye shall keep my statutes. Thou shalt not let thy cattle gender with a diverse kind: thou shalt not sow thy field with mingled seed: neither shall a garment mingled of linen and woollen come upon thee.But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body. All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds.THE THREAD
And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.Genesis and Deuteronomy use זֶרַע (zeraʿ), the same Hebrew root for “seed” and “sow.” Genesis describes seed-bearing plants yielding according to kind; Deuteronomy shows what happens when distinct seeds are brought together in one planting.
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