What Does Deuteronomy 4:14 Mean in the King James?
And the LORD commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go over to possess it.
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 makes understanding embodied: what is taught reaches its purpose as it takes shape in the life you inhabit.
THE MEANING
Instruction reaches beyond what you know into what you do. The statutes and judgments become visible in the life you inhabit, where teaching takes the shape of action.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that knowing the instruction is the same as living it; the verse places the teaching’s aim in doing.
THE ROOT
לְלַמֵּד
lelammed
GROWS FROM
למד
l-m-d
To learn; in the intensive form used here, to teach.
“teach” in this verse is lelammed. The same root can describe learning and teaching, joining what is passed on with what is taken in. Here, teaching points toward action: what is learned is meant to become part of lived experience.
ALSO GROWS
lamad: To learn.
לָמַד
This branch shows the receiving side of the same process expressed by “teach.”
talmid: Learner, student.
תַּלְמִיד
The learner’s word comes from the same root, linking instruction with the one who takes it in.
חֻקִּים
ḥuqqim
GROWS FROM
חקק
ḥ-q-q
To cut or engrave; by extension, to mark out or prescribe.
The word for statutes carries an image of something marked out and given form. Beside “judgments,” it suggests guidance with both defined shape and room for discernment.
ALSO GROWS
ḥoq: A prescribed measure, portion, or statute.
חֹק
This branch shows how something marked out becomes an established form of instruction.
meḥoqeq: A lawgiver or one who decrees.
מְחוֹקֵק
The same root can name the one who establishes a decree as well as the prescribed form itself.
מִשְׁפָּטִים
mishpatim
GROWS FROM
שפט
sh-p-t
To judge, decide, or govern.
Judgments come from the root of deciding and discerning. Paired with statutes, they hold together established guidance and the act of judgment within the life where that guidance is practiced.
ALSO GROWS
shofet: Judge, one who decides a case.
שֹׁפֵט
This branch makes the root’s discerning and deciding sense visible.
lishpot: To judge or render a decision.
לִשְׁפּוֹט
The action from the same root shows that judgment is also something enacted.
THE PATTERN
Instruction reaches its purpose when what is taught takes shape in action.
But as for thee, stand thou here by me, and I will speak unto thee all the commandments, and the statutes, and the judgments, which thou shalt teach them, that they may do them in the land which I give them to possess it.This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.THE THREAD
Blessed art thou, O LORD: teach me thy statutes.The word translated “teach” shares the root למד with Deuteronomy’s “teach.” Here, the learner asks to receive the instruction that Deuteronomy shows taking form in action.
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