What Does Deuteronomy 6:14 Mean in the King James?
Ye shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the people which are round about you;
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 gods called “other” are named with the same Hebrew root as what you go “after,” binding the object of pursuit to the direction of your steps.
THE MEANING
What surrounds you can become a direction of allegiance when it becomes what you follow. The verse speaks now to the pull of surrounding loyalties: proximity can quietly turn into direction, and direction into allegiance.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that what everyone around you reveres must therefore be worthy of your allegiance.
THE ROOT
אַחֲרֵי
acharei
GROWS FROM
אחר
Behind, after; later, another.
“after / other” in this verse is acharei. The phrase uses the same consonantal root twice: “after” (אַחֲרֵי, acharei) and “other” (אֲחֵרִים, acherim). English separates them, while Hebrew echoes the thing followed in the very word naming it as other.
ALSO GROWS
acharei: After, behind.
אַחֲרֵי
This is the word in “go after,” naming the direction of pursuit.
acherim: Others, other.
אֲחֵרִים
The gods are called “other” with the same root that names what is “after,” joining the object of pursuit to the act of following.
THE PATTERN
What commands allegiance is revealed by what a person follows and serves.
Thou shalt have no other gods before me.And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.THE THREAD
Thus saith the LORD, What iniquity have your fathers found in me, that they are gone far from me, and have walked after vanity, and are become vain?“Walked after” uses the same Hebrew root, אחר, as “after” and “other” in Deuteronomy. The shared wording reveals the movement: what is followed shapes the follower.
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