What Does Deuteronomy 31:11 Mean in the King James?

When all Israel is come to appear before the LORD thy God in the place which he shall choose, thou shalt read this law before all Israel in their hearing.

Deuteronomy 31:11 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

The Hebrew verb for “read” also means “call aloud” or “proclaim”: the instruction reaches the whole people as a voice heard together.

THE MEANING

The instruction reaches you in shared hearing: it is voiced before the whole people, so what is read becomes audible to everyone gathered. Reading, gathering, and hearing form one act of communal reception.

THE ROOT

וְקָרָאתָ

veqara'ta

GROWS FROM

קרא

⁨קרא⁩ (qara): to call, call aloud, summon, or proclaim.

The verb translated “read” is qara, whose range includes calling aloud, summoning, and proclaiming. Its branch ⁨מִקְרָא⁩ (miqra, a convocation or assembly) links public reading with a gathered people receiving the instruction by voice.

ALSO GROWS

qara: To call, call aloud, or proclaim.

קָרָא

This is the root verb in the verse: reading the instruction gives it a public voice.

miqra: A convocation or assembly.

מִקְרָא

This branch connects the act of reading aloud with a people gathered to hear.

qore: One who calls or reads aloud.

קֹרֵא

The reader carries the instruction into the assembly as spoken words.

THE PATTERN

When instruction is voiced before a gathered people, hearing becomes a shared act.

And he took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people: and they said, All that the LORD hath said will we do, and be obedient.

Exodus 24:7 · KJVThe covenant is read aloud before the people, and their answer comes from the gathered community.

And he read therein before the street that was before the water gate from the morning until midday, before the men and the women, and those that could understand; and the ears of all the people were attentive unto the book of the law.

Nehemiah 8:3 · KJVA public reading makes the instruction audible to the assembled people, whose ears attend together.

And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read.

Luke 4:16 · KJVReading takes place in the assembly, where the spoken text is shared with those gathered.

THE THREAD

And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

Genesis 1:5 · KJV

The Hebrew root ⁨קרא⁩ (qara, to call or proclaim) appears as “called” in Genesis and “read” in Deuteronomy. The shared root links naming and reading as voiced acts: the word reaches the people by being spoken.

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