What Does Deuteronomy 32:19 Mean in the King James?
And when the LORD saw it, he abhorred them, because of the provoking of his sons, and of his daughters.
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 shock is that the LORD names them as his children and still spurns them for their provocation.
THE MEANING
The LORD sees the provocation of those he calls his sons and daughters, and he spurns them for it. The verse holds kinship and rejection together without softening either: being named as his own does not make the rupture harmless.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that being God’s child means he must accept every act without response. The verse names them as his sons and daughters at the very moment it says he spurns them.
THE ROOT
וַיִּנְאָץ
wayyin'ats
GROWS FROM
נאץ
na'ats
To spurn or treat with contempt.
English makes “abhorred” sound chiefly like a feeling, while the Hebrew verb centers on spurning. The same root describes Israel as provoking God in Numbers 14:11, so contempt appears both in the people’s act and in the LORD’s response.
ALSO GROWS
na'ats: Spurn, despise, treat with contempt.
נָאַץ
This basic sense shows that “abhorred” carries the force of rejection, not only inward dislike.
yena'atsuni: Provoke me, treat me with contempt.
יְנָאֲצֻנִי
In Numbers 14:11, this root describes the people provoking God; here it describes the LORD spurning them.
menō'ats: Blasphemed, treated with contempt.
מְנֹאָץ
In Isaiah 52:5 the LORD’s name is described with this same root, which English renders with a different word.
מִכַּעַס
mikka'as
GROWS FROM
כעס
ka'as
To anger or vex; anger and vexation.
The root of “provoking” also names anger and vexation, so the cause is an angering act rather than a vague offense. Paired with the separate root for “abhorred,” the verse distinguishes the provocation from the severe act of spurning.
ALSO GROWS
ka'as: Anger, vexation.
כַּעַס
This noun preserves the anger within the phrase translated “the provoking.”
hikh'is: Provoke, vex, bring to anger.
הִכְעִיס
This causative form makes clear that the provoking is an act that produces anger.
THE PATTERN
God does not treat contempt toward him as harmless: he sees it and responds.
And the LORD said unto Moses, How long will this people provoke me? and how long will it be ere they believe me, for all the signs which I have shewed among them?When God heard this, he was wroth, and greatly abhorred Israel:Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:THE THREAD
And the LORD said unto Moses, How long will this people provoke me? and how long will it be ere they believe me, for all the signs which I have shewed among them?Numbers uses the same root for Israel’s act of provoking God that Deuteronomy uses for the LORD’s act of spurning his children. The shared root lets you hear contempt on both sides of the rupture, while the separate root for “provoking” in Deuteronomy names the angering cause.
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