What Does Deuteronomy 28:38 Mean in the King James?
Thou shalt carry much seed out into the field, and shalt gather but little in; for the locust shall consume it.
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 Hebrew name for locust is tied to increase, so the verse’s brutal turn is that what multiplies becomes the force consuming the harvest.
THE MEANING
Much seed enters the field, but little comes back because the locust consumes it. The verse holds open the gap between what is planted and what is gathered: what grows can devour the expected yield before it becomes provision.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that effort guarantees a matching return falls away here: what is sown can be consumed between planting and gathering.
THE ROOT
אַרְבֶּה
arbeh
GROWS FROM
רבה
to increase, become many
אַרְבֶּה (arbeh, locust) is associated with רָבָה (rabah, increase), placing the creature in the language of multiplication. Here the force that becomes many consumes what was planted.
ALSO GROWS
rabah: to increase, grow numerous
רָבָה
The locust’s name echoes the process of becoming many.
hirbah: to multiply, make many
הִרְבָּה
This form gives the same root an active sense: multiplication, turned here toward the swarm that consumes the crop.
יַחְסְלֶנּוּ
yaḥsallennu
GROWS FROM
חסל
to consume, finish off
The verb translated consume comes from חָסַל (ḥāsal, consume), a root that also gives חָסִיל (ḥāsîl, a locust or cankerworm). The language folds the act of devouring into the naming of a devourer, making the loss sound as concrete as the swarm.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāsal: to consume, finish off
חָסַל
This is the action that breaks the expected movement from planting to gathering.
ḥāsîl: a locust or cankerworm
חָסִיל
A creature associated with eating away the crop shares the root of the verse’s word for consuming.
THE PATTERN
What is sown can be consumed before it becomes a harvest.
For they covered the face of the whole earth, so that the land was darkened; and they did eat every herb of the land, and all the fruit of the trees which the hail had left: and there remained not any green thing in the trees, or in the herbs of the field, through all the land of Egypt.That which the palmerworm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten; and that which the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpiller eaten.A sower went out to sow his seed: and as he sowed, some fell by the way side; and it was trodden down, and the fowls of the air devoured it.THE THREAD
That which the palmerworm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten; and that which the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpiller eaten.Joel repeats אַרְבֶּה (arbeh, locust), the same word used here, and names חָסִיל (ḥāsîl, cankerworm), from the same word family as חָסַל (ḥāsal, consume). The root connection joins the eater to the act of eating and extends the single loss into a chain.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us