What Does Deuteronomy 28:57 Mean in the King James?
And toward her young one that cometh out from between her feet, and toward her children which she shall bear: for she shall eat them for want of all things secretly in the siege and straitness, wherewith thine enemy shall distress thee in thy gates.
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 siege is complete when pressure at the gates enters the household and turns the child the mother bears into food she eats in secret.
THE MEANING
Here, hunger reaches the child as it comes from between its mother’s feet, and the mother eats what she bears in secret. Scarcity and enemy pressure converge inside the household, at the bond between the one who bears and the one who is borne.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that siege stays outside the gates: here its pressure enters the household, birth, and the act of eating.
THE ROOT
בַּמָּצוֹק
bammatsōq
GROWS FROM
צוק
ṣ-w-q
To press, squeeze, or bring into straits.
“straitness / distress” in this verse is bammatsōq. “Straitness” and “distress” share this root of pressing: the surrounding condition and the enemy’s action form one continuous pressure. The siege narrows life from outside while that pressure reaches into the household.
ALSO GROWS
matsōq: Straits, distress
מָצוֹק
This names the constriction in which the mother and child are trapped.
yāṣîq: He presses upon, distresses
יָצִיק
The enemy actively imposes the pressure named by “straitness.”
בַּסָּתֶר
bassāter
GROWS FROM
סתר
s-t-r
To hide or conceal.
“secretly” in this verse is bassāter. The act is not only an outcome of deprivation; it is also hidden from view. This root links concealment with the secrecy surrounding what the siege forces inside the household.
ALSO GROWS
sēter: A hiding place, something concealed
סֵתֶר
It gives the secrecy in the verse the sense of an act enclosed from sight.
histīr: To hide, conceal
הִסְתִּיר
This verb from the same root echoes the verse’s hiddenness.
בְּחֹסֶר
bəḥōser
GROWS FROM
חסר
ḥ-s-r
To lack, be diminished, or be without.
The phrase “want of all things” names total absence, not appetite. The root makes deprivation the condition surrounding the act.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāsēr: Lacking, deficient
חָסֵר
It names the absence behind the verse’s “want.”
maḥsōr: Lack, need, want
מַחְסוֹר
This related noun carries the same condition of need that has become total here.
THE PATTERN
Under siege and total deprivation, the collapse of provision reaches into family bonds and turns children into food.
And thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own body, the flesh of thy sons and of thy daughters, which the LORD thy God hath given thee, in the siege, and in the straitness, wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee:So we boiled my son, and did eat him: and I said unto her on the next day, Give thy son, that we may eat him: and she hath hid her son.The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children: they were their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people.THE THREAD
And thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own body, the flesh of thy sons and of thy daughters, which the LORD thy God hath given thee, in the siege, and in the straitness, wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee:The verse repeats the language of siege, straitness, and distress; “straitness” and “distress” come from the same Hebrew root of pressing. Verse 53 names the consuming of children, and verse 57 brings that pressure into the detail of birth and secrecy.
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