What Does Deuteronomy 6:17 Mean in the King James?
Ye shall diligently keep the commandments of the LORD your God, and his testimonies, and his statutes, which he hath commanded thee.
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 doubled Hebrew “keep” makes obedience an act of sustained guarding over an entrusted word.
THE MEANING
You are presented as one entrusted with God’s commandments, testimonies, and statutes. The repeated Hebrew verb gives this keeping the quality of watchfulness: the instruction is held in care and carried into life. The verse describes an ongoing relationship with what has been entrusted to you.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that merely possessing God’s commandments is the same as keeping them; the verse describes sustained attention to them.
THE ROOT
שָׁמוֹר תִּשְׁמְרוּן
shāmôr tišmerûn
GROWS FROM
שׁמר
To watch over, guard, or preserve.
“diligently keep” in this verse is shāmôr tišmerûn. The form pairs שָׁמוֹר (shāmôr, “guard”) with תִּשְׁמְרוּן (tišmerûn, “you shall keep”) from the same root. That repetition intensifies the watchfulness: the instruction is held as something actively guarded.
ALSO GROWS
shōmēr: One who watches over or keeps.
שֹׁמֵר
This branch makes the verse’s keeping a guardian’s posture of attention.
mishmeret: A watch, charge, or entrusted duty.
מִשְׁמֶרֶת
It shows the instruction as a charge held in care.
חֻקָּיו
ḥuqqāw
GROWS FROM
חקק
To cut or inscribe; by extension, to fix or prescribe.
חֻקָּיו (ḥuqqāw, “his statutes”) belongs to a word family associated with inscribing and fixing. The root gives the instruction the image of a durable shape impressed into life.
ALSO GROWS
ḥōq: A fixed ordinance, limit, or portion.
חֹק
It links the statute to something set in place and held as an enduring measure.
meḥōqēq: One who sets an ordinance or inscribes a rule.
מְחֹקֵק
This branch reveals the connection between the fixed instruction and the one who establishes it.
THE PATTERN
Instruction remains alive through watchful keeping that holds it in care and carries it into action.
Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons’ sons;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.If ye love me, keep my commandments.THE THREAD
The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul.The Hebrew root שׁמר (shāmar, “guard, keep, preserve”) appears here as “keep” and in Psalm 121:7 as “preserve.” The same root links your guarding of the entrusted instruction with the LORD’s guarding of you.
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