What Does Deuteronomy 28:31 Mean in the King James?
Thine ox shall be slain before thine eyes, and thou shalt not eat thereof: thine ass shall be violently taken away from before thy face, and shall not be restored to thee: thy sheep shall be given unto thine enemies, and thou shalt have none to rescue them.
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’s deepest closure is the double absence of a way back: what is seized does not return, and no rescuer comes to recover it.
THE MEANING
In your sight, what feeds, carries, and sustains you is killed, seized, or placed in enemy hands. The verse closes two paths to recovery: the donkey does not return, and no rescuer appears for the sheep.
THE ROOT
מוֹשִׁיעַ
moshia
GROWS FROM
ישע
yasha
To deliver, bringing someone out of danger into safety and spaciousness.
“rescue” in this verse is moshia. The final phrase names the person whose work is to deliver, then says that no such person is there. The same root names deliverance itself, so the verse closes off the very movement that could bring what was lost out of danger.
ALSO GROWS
yeshuah: Deliverance.
יְשׁוּעָה
This is the deliverance the verse says is absent: no one arrives to bring the sheep out of enemy hands.
Yeshua: A name from the root of deliverance.
יֵשׁוּעַ
The name shares the root carried by “rescuer,” tying the person who delivers to the act of deliverance.
יָשׁוּב
yashuv
GROWS FROM
שׁוב
shuv
To turn or return.
“restored” in this verse is yashuv. The Hebrew describes the donkey as not returning to you. The same root can describe bringing something back, so this is a return that is explicitly blocked, not merely an object that is missing.
ALSO GROWS
heshiv: To bring back or restore.
הֵשִׁיב
This form names the return that does not happen in the verse.
meshubah: Turning away or backsliding.
מְשׁוּבָה
The root carries both returning and turning away; here the taken animal does not turn back to its owner.
גָּזוּל
gazul
GROWS FROM
גזל
gazal
To rob or seize.
“violently taken away” in this verse is gazul. The donkey is not simply lost; the word presents a seizure by force. That makes its failure to return especially stark: the theft remains unreversed.
ALSO GROWS
gazal: To rob or seize.
גָּזַל
This verb makes the force behind the donkey’s removal explicit.
gezelah: Robbery or stolen property.
גְּזֵלָה
This noun shows the act and its result belong to the same root: what is seized becomes the object of robbery.
THE PATTERN
When what is yours is stripped away, possession alone cannot guarantee protection or recovery.
But this is a people robbed and spoiled; they are all of them snared in holes, and they are hid in prison houses: they are for a prey, and none delivereth; for a spoil, and none saith, Restore.So David and his men came to the city, and, behold, it was burned with fire; and their wives, and their sons, and their daughters, were taken captives.For ye had compassion of me in my bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance.THE THREAD
I have waited for thy salvation, O LORD.The KJV’s “salvation” here renders לִישׁוּעָתְךָ (lishu’atecha, “your deliverance”), from the same root ישע (yasha) as מוֹשִׁיעַ (moshia, “rescuer”) in Deuteronomy. One verse names the absence of a rescuer; the other speaks of deliverance from that same root as awaited.
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