What Does Deuteronomy 28:22 Mean in the King James?
The LORD shall smite thee with a consumption, and with a fever, and with an inflammation, and with an extreme burning, and with the sword, and with blasting, and with mildew; and they shall pursue thee until thou perish.
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 verse turns bodily fire, violence, and failed provision into one advancing pursuit that continues until life is lost.
THE MEANING
Here the LORD’s blow reaches the body, safety, and provision: illness burns, the sword threatens, and the crops are struck. The pressure keeps pursuing until the person is lost; the verse holds that violence as cumulative and unrelenting.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that affliction remains one isolated event: this verse presents bodily illness, violence, and failed provision as one converging pursuit.
THE ROOT
וְרָדְפוּךָ
veradfukha
GROWS FROM
רדף
To pursue, chase, or press after.
“pursue” in this verse is veradfukha. The closing verb gives the whole list a direction: these afflictions do not simply exist; they chase after the person. The root also forms words for a pursuer and for pursuit, gathering illness, sword, and crop ruin into a single chase.
ALSO GROWS
rodef: Pursuer; one who chases after.
רֹדֵף
The threat is pictured as an active force closing in, not a condition at rest.
redifah: Pursuit; persecution.
רְדִיפָה
This noun makes clear that the root can describe an ongoing chase, matching the verse’s unrelenting sequence.
דַלֶּקֶת
dalleqet
GROWS FROM
דלק
To burn or blaze; in another attested use, to pursue or chase.
The word for inflammation grows from a root used for burning and also for pursuing. The verse’s final word for “pursue” comes from a different root, רדף, so the Hebrew lets two distinct roots echo the same advancing force.
ALSO GROWS
deleqah: Conflagration; a blaze.
דְּלֵקָה
This branch keeps the fire inside “inflammation” visible: the affliction is named as something burning.
dālaq ʾaḥărē: To pursue after; to chase.
דָּלַק אַחֲרֵי
This usage gives the same root a chasing sense, echoing the verse’s image of bodily burning followed by pursuit.
אָבַד
ʾābad
GROWS FROM
אבד
To be lost, perish, or disappear; to cause loss.
“perish” in this verse is ʾābad. The ending can be heard as both perishing and being lost. After the list of bodily, violent, and agricultural harms, the final word names their endpoint as disappearance under the pressure.
ALSO GROWS
ʾoved: Lost; perishing.
אָבֵד
This form keeps loss and perishing together in the word family.
ʾavedah: Loss; something lost.
אֲבֵדָה
The branch shows that the root reaches beyond death to the state of being lost.
ʾavaddon: Destruction; ruin.
אֲבַדּוֹן
This branch gives the root’s loss a larger scale, fitting the verse’s cumulative threat.
THE PATTERN
Judgment is made bodily and cumulative: affliction marks the flesh, pursues, and reaches the conditions that sustain life.
I also will do this unto you; I will even appoint over you terror, consumption, and the burning ague, that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart: and ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it.Terrors are turned upon me: they pursue my soul as the wind: and my welfare passeth away as a cloud.And the first went, and poured out his vial upon the earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped his image.THE THREAD
Moreover all these curses shall come upon thee, and shall pursue thee, and overtake thee, till thou be destroyed; because thou hearkenedst not unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which he commanded thee:This verse uses the same root, רדף, for “pursue,” and gathers the curses into one advancing force. It opens the current verse further by naming the list of afflictions as a pursuit that overtakes.
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