What Does Deuteronomy 28:50 Mean in the King James?
A nation of fierce countenance, which shall not regard the person of the old, nor shew favour to the young:
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 repeats “face”: the nation’s fierce face meets a refusal to lift anyone else’s face, old or young.
THE MEANING
This verse exposes power that refuses recognition to people at either end of life: the old receive no regard, and the young no favor. Age offers neither shelter nor dignity in the face of such hardness.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that age will always earn reverence or youth will always draw protection; this power withholds both.
THE ROOT
פָּנִים
panim
GROWS FROM
פנה
p-n-h
turn, face toward
“countenance / face” in this verse is panim. The Hebrew repeats panim: first the nation is “fierce of face,” then it will not “lift a face” toward the old. The repeated word makes the cruelty a face-to-face refusal of recognition, extending across generations.
ALSO GROWS
panah: turn, face toward
פָּנָה
The root’s sense of turning toward sharpens the verse’s image of a face that refuses to meet another.
lifnei: before, in the presence of
לִפְנֵי
This form carries the sense of someone standing before a face; the verse describes that presence being denied recognition.
יָחֹן
yaḥon
GROWS FROM
חנן
ḥ-n-n
show favor, act graciously
“shew favour” in this verse is yaḥon. The young are not merely overlooked; the verse says favor itself is withheld from them. The root keeps the meaning concrete: no gracious regard is extended to the person before this power.
ALSO GROWS
chen: favor
חֵן
This noun names the favor that the verse says the young do not receive.
ḥannun: gracious, showing favor
חַנּוּן
This form describes the quality missing from the nation’s treatment of the young.
THE PATTERN
Power reveals its character in whether it grants regard without making age or status a condition.
Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head, and honour the face of the old man, and fear thy God: I am the LORD.These things also belong to the wise. It is not good to have respect of persons in judgment.My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons.THE THREAD
Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head, and honour the face of the old man, and fear thy God: I am the LORD.The Hebrew word panim (“face”) appears in both verses: Deuteronomy describes refusing to lift a face toward the old, while Leviticus makes the old person’s face the object of honor. The shared word exposes the difference between denying recognition and giving it.
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