What Does Deuteronomy 4:27 Mean in the King James?

And the LORD shall scatter you among the nations, and ye shall be left few in number among the heathen, whither the LORD shall lead you.

Deuteronomy 4:27 · 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 sharpest hinge is that the LORD does not only scatter you: the same verse names the LORD as the one who leads you into the nations.

THE MEANING

You are scattered among peoples and reduced to a countable few; the verse does not soften the loss by calling it symbolic. It places the LORD’s leading inside that displacement, so the wound and divine agency stand together.

THE ROOT

וְהֵפִיץ

wehēphîṣ

GROWS FROM

פוץ

pûṣ

Scatter, disperse, spread apart.

The same root ⁨פוץ⁩ (pûṣ, “scatter” or “disperse”) describes people spread across the earth and fountains dispersed abroad. It names being spread out, not simply vanishing.

ALSO GROWS

nāphūṣ: Be scattered (Genesis 11:4).

נָפוּץ

The same root describes people spread across the earth, making the verse’s scattering a dispersal among places.

yāphūṣû: Be dispersed abroad (Proverbs 5:16).

יָפוּצוּ

The root also describes fountains spreading outward, showing that its core sense is distribution across space.

וְנִשְׁאַרְתֶּם

wenishʾartem

GROWS FROM

שאר

shʾr

Remain, be left over.

The word translated “left” comes from the same root used for “remnant.” The verse holds both the painful reduction and the fact that something remains, without making the reduction gentle.

ALSO GROWS

nishʾar: Remained, was left (Genesis 42:38).

נִשְׁאַר

It uses the same root for what remains after loss.

sheʾerît: Remnant (Isaiah 10:22).

שְׁאֵרִית

The same root names the remaining few as a remnant.

יַנְהֵג

yanhēg

GROWS FROM

נהג

nhg

Lead, conduct, drive.

“lead” in this verse is yanhēg. This root can describe leading a flock as well as conducting people toward a place of exile. Its core is being led somewhere; the verb itself does not make the destination gentle or safe.

ALSO GROWS

wayyinhag: Led the flock (Exodus 3:1).

וַיִּנְהַג

The same root describes Moses leading a flock, grounding “lead” in the concrete act of conducting living beings.

wayyanhăgēm: Guided them like a flock (Psalm 78:52).

וַיַּנְהֲגֵם

Here the root describes the LORD leading people, echoing the verse’s claim that the LORD leads you where you are scattered.

THE PATTERN

A people can be dispersed and reduced while a remnant still remains within the story.

For though thy people Israel be as the sand of the sea, yet a remnant of them shall return: the consumption decreed shall overflow with righteousness.

Isaiah 10:22 · KJVThe remnant is the part that returns, so numerical diminishment does not equal disappearance.

And I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all countries whither I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase.

Jeremiah 23:3 · KJVThe remnant is gathered from the countries into which it was driven, carrying the pattern from dispersion toward return.

Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.

Romans 11:5 · KJVThe verse names a remnant as present, showing that the pattern remains alive now.

THE THREAD

That then the LORD thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath scattered thee.

Deuteronomy 30:3 · KJV

Both verses use ⁨פוץ⁩ (pûṣ, “scatter” or “disperse”). Deuteronomy 30:3 places that same scattering beside gathering: the people can be truly dispersed and still be gathered from those nations.

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