What Does Deuteronomy 6:20 Mean in the King James?
And when thy son asketh thee in time to come, saying, What mean the testimonies, and the statutes, and the judgments, which the LORD our God hath commanded 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 commands are not mute rules: the verse expects their meaning to become a child’s question.
THE MEANING
Your son can look at the testimonies, statutes, and judgments shaping your life and ask what they mean; that question belongs inside the life of instruction. These are distinct strands, witness, inscribed form, and judgment, and their meaning can be spoken from one generation to another.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that inherited commands explain themselves is unsettled here: the child asks for their meaning, and that question has a place in the life of instruction.
THE ROOT
עֵדוֹת
ʿēdōt
GROWS FROM
עוּד
ʿ-w-d
To repeat or affirm; in a causative form, to testify.
“testimonies” in this verse is ʿēdōt. A testimony carries the sense of witness that can be spoken and affirmed, not merely a rule on a list. Your son’s question asks for the witness carried within these words.
ALSO GROWS
ʿēd: A witness
עֵד
The testimony is rooted in the presence of a witness: something that can be named and affirmed.
hēʿîd: To testify or bear witness
הֵעִיד
This verbal branch makes testimony an act of speaking, fitting the child’s question and the answer it calls for.
חֻקִּים
ḥuqqîm
GROWS FROM
חקק
ḥ-q-q
To cut or inscribe; by extension, to decree.
The root pictures something cut or inscribed into a set form. “Statutes” therefore carries an image of instruction given shape, alongside the testimony that speaks and the judgment that discerns.
ALSO GROWS
ḥōq: A statute, prescribed measure, or portion
חֹק
This singular form shows the established measure contained in the plural statutes.
meḥōqēq: One who decrees or inscribes
מְחֹקֵק
This branch makes visible the act of giving an instruction its defined form.
מִשְׁפָּטִים
mishpāṭîm
GROWS FROM
שפט
sh-p-ṭ
To judge or decide.
The root connects these judgments to the act of judging and deciding. The word carries discernment and decision, not merely another name for a command.
ALSO GROWS
shōfēṭ: A judge
שֹׁפֵט
This branch names the one who performs the act contained in the judgments.
shōfṭîm: Judges
שֹׁפְטִים
The plural keeps the same root in view as the people who decide cases and render judgment.
THE PATTERN
Visible signs and ways of life invite questions, and their meaning travels when someone gives an answer.
And it shall come to pass, when your children shall say unto you, What mean ye by this service?That this may be a sign among you, that when your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean ye by these stones?But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:THE THREAD
Blessed are they that keep his testimonies, and that seek him with the whole heart.The Hebrew word translated “testimonies,” עֵדוֹת (ʿēdōt), appears in both verses. Here your son asks what the testimonies mean; Psalm 119:2 shows them as something kept and sought, opening the question toward lived engagement with the witness.
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