What Does Deuteronomy 32:15 Mean in the King James?
But Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked: thou art waxen fat, thou art grown thick, thou art covered with fatness; then he forsook God which made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation.
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 names its subject Jeshurun, the upright one, and then shows fullness turning that uprightness into a kick against the Rock of deliverance.
THE MEANING
The “upright one” can be full and still turn against the source that made and delivers them. Here, abundance does not erase dependence; it can cover it until the Rock seems small.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie this undoes is that fullness means you are self-made and no longer depend on a source; the verse shows fullness can coexist with forsaking the one who made you.
THE ROOT
יְשֻׁרוּן
Yeshurun
GROWS FROM
יָשַׁר
y-sh-r
To be straight, right, or upright.
Jeshurun is a poetic name understood as “the upright one,” from yashar. The name collides with the action: the one called upright becomes a kicker who forsakes the Maker, exposing a break between named nature and lived direction.
ALSO GROWS
yashar: Straight, upright
יָשָׁר
It gives Jeshurun its name-nature and sharpens the contrast with the turning described here.
yosher: Uprightness, integrity
יֹשֶׁר
This branch makes the verse’s tension plain: uprightness is named, while the actions move away from its source.
וַיִּשְׁמַן
vayyishman
GROWS FROM
שמן
sh-m-n
To be fat or rich; to become full.
“waxed fat” in this verse is vayyishman. The repeated fatness language comes from shamen and makes the abundance bodily: fullness is followed by kicking and forgetting. The same root appears in words for oil and rich foods, so the verse pictures plenty as something tangible that can cover awareness of its source.
ALSO GROWS
shemen: Oil
שֶׁמֶן
The shared root links fatness with a rich, nourishing substance; here, fullness becomes the setting for turning against the giver.
mishmannim: Rich foods, delicacies
מִשְׁמַנִּים
This branch shows the root’s association with richness and abundance, the condition the verse says can precede forgetfulness.
יְשׁוּעָתוֹ
yeshuʿato
GROWS FROM
ישע
y-sh-ʿ
To deliver, rescue, or bring out into safety.
“Salvation” can sound abstract, but yeshuah names deliverance: being brought out of constriction into room. The Rock is the source and solid ground of that deliverance, so to spurn the Rock is to reject the very source of release.
ALSO GROWS
yeshuah: Deliverance
יְשׁוּעָה
It is the deliverance named as belonging to the Rock in this verse.
moshia: Deliverer
מוֹשִׁיעַ
This form names the one who brings deliverance, clarifying why forsaking the Maker and Rock is a rupture with the source of rescue.
THE PATTERN
When fullness is mistaken for self-sufficiency, the heart can forget the source that sustains it.
Then thine heart be lifted up, and thou forget the LORD thy God, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage;According to their pasture, so were they filled; they were filled, and their heart was exalted; therefore have they forgotten me.So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.THE THREAD
Of the Rock that begat thee thou art unmindful, and hast forgotten God that formed thee.The next verse repeats the Rock and makes the fracture explicit: forgetting the Rock is forgetting the one who formed you. The image deepens “God which made him” into a source of life, not a distant idea.
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