What Does Deuteronomy 31:4 Mean in the King James?
And the LORD shall do unto them as he did to Sihon and to Og, kings of the Amorites, and unto the land of them, whom he destroyed.
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 destruction of Sihon and Og becomes a reusable precedent, turning remembered conquest into the promise of fresh violence.
THE MEANING
The verse meets you with a promise built from precedent: the LORD’s treatment of Sihon and Og is the measure for what is now to be done to the nations before you. Its verb names destruction, so the promise’s assurance and its violence stand together.
THE ROOT
הִשְׁמִיד
hishmîd
GROWS FROM
שׁמד
sh-m-d
To destroy or bring to ruin; in this form, to destroy decisively.
“destroyed” in this verse is hishmîd. The verse uses the same root for the destruction of Sihon and Og’s land as it does for the promised act ahead. The root makes the earlier conquest a live precedent: the destruction is not presented as a closed event, but as the measure for what follows.
ALSO GROWS
hishmîd: He destroyed; a causative form of שׁמד.
הִשְׁמִיד
This is the form in the verse, naming what was done to the kings’ land directly as destruction.
tashmîd: You shall destroy; a future form of שׁמד.
תַּשְׁמִיד
The same root appears in Deuteronomy 7:24, carrying the remembered destruction forward into another declaration of conquest.
THE PATTERN
The text makes remembered conquest the warrant for another conquest, repeating destruction as a divine action.
And the LORD our God delivered him before us; and we smote him, and his sons, and all his people.And we utterly destroyed them, as we did unto Sihon king of Heshbon, utterly destroying the men, women, and children, of every city.Who smote great nations, and slew mighty kings;THE THREAD
And he shall deliver their kings into thine hand, and thou shalt destroy their name from under heaven: there shall no man be able to stand before thee, until thou have destroyed them.The same שׁמד root appears here in “destroy,” now directed at the people’s name from under heaven. The connection carries the force beyond defeating rulers to erasing a people’s name.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us