What Does Deuteronomy 28:63 Mean in the King James?
And it shall come to pass, that as the LORD rejoiced over you to do you good, and to multiply you; so the LORD will rejoice over you to destroy you, and to bring you to nought; and ye shall be plucked from off the land whither thou goest to possess 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 verse’s darkest reversal leaves “rejoice” untouched: the same Hebrew root names the LORD’s delight in doing good and in destroying.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks now as a stark warning: the LORD’s rejoicing moves from doing good and multiplying to destruction, bringing to nothing, and removal from the land. The repeated verb holds both outcomes together, and the final image does not soften the violence of being plucked away.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It breaks the assumption that divine delight guarantees a gentle outcome: here, the same rejoicing stands beside ruin.
THE ROOT
שָׂשׂ
śās
GROWS FROM
שׂו״שׂ
To exult, rejoice.
“rejoiced / will rejoice” in this verse is śās. The verse repeats this root on both sides of its reversal: rejoicing is directed first toward doing good and multiplying, then toward destruction and removal. The force of the rejoicing stays constant while its outcome changes.
ALSO GROWS
śāśôn: Joy, gladness, rejoicing.
שָׂשׂוֹן
This related noun shows the root’s sense of exultant joy, the same force attached here to opposite outcomes.
məśōś: Delight, gladness.
מְשׂוֹשׂ
This branch keeps the focus on delight, making the verse’s reversal sharper: the delight remains, while what it brings about changes.
הַאֲבִיד
haʾăḇîḏ
GROWS FROM
אבד
To perish or become lost; in this causative form, to cause to perish or become lost.
The word translated “destroy” carries the seed of perishing or being lost. The following image of being plucked from the land extends that loss from life and continuity to place.
ALSO GROWS
ʾōḇēḏ: One who is perishing or lost.
אֹבֵד
It shows the root’s sense of loss that lies beneath the forceful causative form in this verse.
ʾăḇēḏāh: A lost thing, a loss.
אֲבֵדָה
This noun makes the root’s language of loss concrete beside the verse’s threat of being brought to nothing.
THE PATTERN
Scripture can place divine delight or love beside consequential action, so affection alone does not promise a gentle outcome.
And the LORD thy God will make thee plenteous in every work of thine hand, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy land, for good: for the LORD will again rejoice over thee for good, as he rejoiced over thy fathers:For whom the LORD loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth.For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.THE THREAD
Yea, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will plant them in this land assuredly with my whole heart and with my whole soul.The Hebrew verb translated “rejoice” comes from the same root, שׂו״שׂ (ś-w-ś, to exult or rejoice), used in Deuteronomy 28:63. Here that rejoicing leads to doing good and planting in the land; beside the warning in Deuteronomy, the shared root makes the reversal concrete: the word for rejoicing remains while its outcome changes.
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