What Does Deuteronomy 29:9 Mean in the King James?
Keep therefore the words of this covenant, and do them, that ye may prosper in all that ye do.
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 prosperity is wisdom in motion: covenant words are guarded, then carried into everything you do.
THE MEANING
The words of the covenant are kept watch over and carried into what you do. The verse joins that attentive keeping with action, so your work takes on discernment and bears fruit.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the idea that what you do can prosper while the words you are meant to keep remain outside your actions.
THE ROOT
וּשְׁמַרְתֶּם
u-shemartem
GROWS FROM
שמר
To guard, watch over, or preserve.
The covenant’s words are what you keep watch over; the verb carries the sense of vigilance and care. Joined to “do them,” keeping becomes active: what you watch over shapes the form your actions take.
ALSO GROWS
shomer: Watcher, keeper, or guardian.
שֹׁמֵר
The keeper stays attentive to what has been entrusted to their care.
mishmeret: Watch, guard duty, or charge.
מִשְׁמֶרֶת
This branch shows that keeping carries the sense of an entrusted watch, not merely recalling words.
תַּשְׂכִּילוּ
taskîlû
GROWS FROM
שׂכל
To understand, act prudently, or act with insight; in context, to prosper or succeed.
“Prosper” in this verse is taskîlû. The Hebrew verb carries the sense of acting wisely as well as prospering. The verse pictures success as discernment expressed through all your work.
ALSO GROWS
śekel: Insight, prudence, or good sense.
שֵׂכֶל
This branch reveals the understanding carried within the verse’s idea of prosperity.
maśkîl: One who is insightful or acts wisely.
מַשְׂכִּיל
This branch links the outcome to a way of acting with understanding.
THE PATTERN
The word becomes fruitful when it is kept in view and enacted in daily work.
But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.THE THREAD
And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.The word translated “keep” here shares the root שמר with Deuteronomy’s “keep” the covenant words. In both verses, keeping is an entrusted watch: what is given care is also tended through action.
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