What Does Deuteronomy 8:17 Mean in the King James?
And thou say in thine heart, My power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth.
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 word for “wealth” also names force, an army, and valor, so the heart claims not just possessions, but the power it says it made for itself.
THE MEANING
The heart can turn abundance into a story of self-authorship: my strength and my hand made this for me. Here, wealth also carries the sense of force and capability, so the claim reaches beyond possessions to the power a person gathers. The verse brings that inner sentence into view.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It loosens the belief that success proves self-sufficiency: “my power” and “my hand” are the heart’s explanation, not the whole account.
THE ROOT
חַיִל
ḥayil
GROWS FROM
חיל
ḥ-y-l
Force, strength, or capacity.
חַיִל (ḥayil) can name wealth, military force, or valor. The verse’s result is therefore not only an accumulation of possessions but a gathered capacity, and the heart claims it as something its own strength produced.
ALSO GROWS
ḥayil: A body of organized force.
חַיִל
This sense reveals the force and resources contained in the word translated “wealth.”
ḥayil: Strength expressed as courage or ability.
חַיִל
This sense joins abundance to the capacity the heart says it made for itself.
עֹצֶם
ʿotsem
GROWS FROM
עצם
ʿ-ts-m
To be strong, mighty, or numerous.
The consonants עצם also appear in עֶצֶם (ʿetsem, bone) and עָצוּם (ʿatsum, mighty or great). The verse’s claim of might carries an echo of bodily substance and strength, giving “the might of my hand” a concrete force.
ALSO GROWS
ʿetsem: A bone; the body’s frame.
עֶצֶם
This related form gives the language of might a tangible bodily resonance.
ʿatsum: Something strong, great in scale, or abundant.
עָצוּם
This branch echoes both the claimed strength and the magnitude of the wealth.
עָשָׂה
ʿasah
GROWS FROM
עשה
ʿ-s-h
To do or make.
“hath gotten” in this verse is ʿasah. The Hebrew verb means “made,” so the heart’s sentence presents strength and hand as makers, not merely as means of acquiring something. It says, in effect, “my power and my hand made this for me.”
ALSO GROWS
maʿaseh: An act, work, or thing made.
מַעֲשֶׂה
This noun keeps the focus on what is done or produced.
ʿoseh: One who makes or does.
עֹשֶׂה
This form sharpens the claim of authorship inside the heart’s sentence.
THE PATTERN
Capacity and abundance are received, even when the heart narrates them as self-made.
But thou shalt remember the LORD thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day.Both riches and honour come of thee, and thou reignest over all; and in thine hand is power and might; and in thine hand it is to make great, and to give strength unto all.For who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?THE THREAD
But thou shalt remember the LORD thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day.The next verse repeats כֹּחַ (koach, power) and חַיִל (ḥayil, wealth or force), the words behind the heart’s claim. It names that power as given and connects the wealth it brings to covenant.
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