What Does Deuteronomy 28:62 Mean in the King James?
And ye shall be left few in number, whereas ye were as the stars of heaven for multitude; because thou wouldest not obey the voice of the LORD thy God.
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
A people once beyond counting become few when they refuse the voice that calls for a response.
THE MEANING
The verse holds abundance and hearing together: a multitude pictured like the stars is reduced to a remnant when the LORD’s voice is refused. “Obey” carries the sense of hearing and responding, so the loss reaches beyond numbers to the people’s relation to that voice.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the belief that abundance is self-sustaining, that what has grown vast must remain secure even when the LORD’s voice is refused.
THE ROOT
לִשְׁמֹעַ
lishmoa
GROWS FROM
שמע
To hear, listen, and heed; hearing that receives and responds.
The verb joins hearing with response: “obey the voice” is literally framed as hearing the voice. The verse’s hinge is not simply the presence of a command, but whether its voice is received and answered.
ALSO GROWS
shema: “Hear!”, the imperative form of the verb.
שְׁמַע
The opening word of the Shema, it makes hearing the first movement of covenant response.
shemu’ah: A report or news; something heard.
שְׁמוּעָה
The same root names what is received by hearing, linking the voice in the verse to a message that calls for response.
THE PATTERN
Covenant life is repeatedly portrayed as hearing God’s voice and answering it.
That thou mayest love the LORD thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he is thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.But this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people: and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you.My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:THE THREAD
But they refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears, that they should not hear.The Hebrew for “hear” here comes from the same שמע (shama, hear and respond) root as “obey” in Deuteronomy. Zechariah shows the refusal in the stopped ears; Deuteronomy names the devastation that follows.
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