What Does Deuteronomy 28:16 Mean in the King James?
Cursed shalt thou be in the city, and cursed shalt thou be in the field.
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 curse reaches from the crowded city to the open field, so changing the setting alone cannot escape its reach.
THE MEANING
This verse names a condition that meets the reader in every setting: the city, where people gather, and the field, where life opens outward. The same curse is present in both, leaving no refuge in a mere change of place.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a different setting by itself guarantees escape from a condition.
THE ROOT
אָרוּר
arur
GROWS FROM
ארר
arar
To curse, to pronounce under a curse.
The same root describes both the person cursed across the city and field and the ground cursed in Genesis 3:17. It links the person’s condition to the ground that sustains life, carrying the curse beyond a single place or event.
ALSO GROWS
arur: Cursed; placed under a curse.
אָרוּר
This is the form used in the verse, repeated for both the city and the field.
me'erah: A curse.
מְאֵרָה
The related noun shows the same root naming the curse itself, not only the person or thing under it.
THE PATTERN
Curse reaches across the places and ground of life, while deliverance is named as release from that condition.
And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;Cursed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and cursed shalt thou be when thou goest out.Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:THE THREAD
And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;The word translated “cursed” comes from the same root in both verses. Here it reaches the person in every setting; in Genesis it reaches the ground that feeds that life.
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