What Does Deuteronomy 7:6 Mean in the King James?
For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God: the LORD thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth.
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
Holiness here is belonging: you are set apart as God’s own because he chooses you for himself.
THE MEANING
You are a people set apart to the LORD your God, chosen to belong to him as his treasured possession. Your distinction is named as belonging “unto himself” and as a place above all the peoples of the earth.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that God’s claim must be earned: it names you as chosen and belonging to him.
THE ROOT
קָדוֹשׁ
qadosh
GROWS FROM
קדש
Q-D-Sh
To set apart, make sacred, or consecrate.
“Holy” carries the sense of being set apart, and “unto the LORD” gives that setting apart its direction: belonging to God. The same root names both the set-apart quality and the sanctuary, linking this people with what is reserved for God.
ALSO GROWS
qodesh: Holiness; what is sacred or set apart.
קֹדֶשׁ
It shows that “holy” names a state of being set apart, not only a moral quality.
miqdash: Sanctuary; a set-apart place.
מִקְדָּשׁ
It shares the root with “holy,” joining the people set apart to the place set apart for God.
בָּחַר
bachar
GROWS FROM
בחר
B-Ḥ-R
To choose or select.
The Hebrew joins the act of choosing with the status of being chosen. Here, “chosen” leads directly to “unto himself,” so selection is expressed as belonging to God, while the verse also plainly names this people as above the others.
ALSO GROWS
bachir: A chosen one; an elect person.
בָּחִיר
It carries the same root from the act of selecting into the identity of the one selected.
mibchar: Choice; the best or choicest part.
מִבְחָר
It shows the root’s connection to selection and distinction, echoing the verse’s explicit phrase “above all people.”
THE PATTERN
God’s choosing names a people as set apart and treasured as his own.
Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine:But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.THE THREAD
Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine:Deuteronomy’s “special people” translates סְגֻלָּה (segullah), meaning a treasured possession; Exodus uses the same Hebrew word as “peculiar treasure.” The shared word opens “people” into “treasure”: the people set apart are also named as God’s own possession.
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