What Does Deuteronomy 4:39 Mean in the King James?
Know therefore this day, and consider it in thine heart, that the LORD he is God in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath: there is none else.
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 Hebrew behind “consider it in thine heart” pictures recognition being brought back into the heart.
THE MEANING
You know today that the LORD alone is God over heaven and earth. This recognition is brought into your heart, where it is held as a present truth. No place you inhabit stands outside it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that God is confined to one realm or shares sovereignty with another.
THE ROOT
וַהֲשֵׁבֹתָ
vahashevota
GROWS FROM
שׁוּב
shuv
turn back, return
The Hebrew verb carries the sense of bringing something back to the heart. “Consider” conveys reflection, while this wording also adds the motion of returning recognition inward.
ALSO GROWS
shav: turned or returned
שָׁב
It shares the root’s movement of turning back, echoing the inward return of recognition in this verse.
teshuvah: a return, a turning back
תְּשׁוּבָה
This noun from the same root shows that the verse’s reflection has the shape of a return, not just detached thought.
וְיָדַעְתָּ
veyadata
GROWS FROM
יָדַע
yada
know, recognize, perceive
“know” in this verse is veyadata. The verse joins knowing with returning: recognition of the LORD’s presence is brought into the heart. The related words keep knowing connected to lived recognition rather than bare information.
ALSO GROWS
da'at: knowledge, understanding
דַּעַת
It shows the broader knowing carried by yada, which the verse places in the heart.
madda: knowledge, understanding
מַדָּע
This related word echoes the verse’s call to recognize what is true across heaven and earth.
THE PATTERN
Truth becomes inwardly available when it is carried into the heart.
And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.THE THREAD
And it shall come to pass, when all these things are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before thee, and thou shalt call them to mind among all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath driven thee,The Hebrew phrase behind “call them to mind” repeats the wording here translated “consider it in thine heart”, bringing something back to the heart. The same root reveals the recurring movement: recognition returns inward even as circumstances change.
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