What Does Deuteronomy 8:7 Mean in the King James?
For the LORD thy God bringeth thee into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills;
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 the land’s fountains is also the word for eyes: its hidden water rises into view.
THE MEANING
The LORD your God is bringing you into good ground, where water rises from deep places and runs through valleys and hills. The land’s goodness appears in living sources beneath its surface, emerging into view.
THE ROOT
עֵינֹת
ʿênōt
GROWS FROM
עין
ʿayin
Eye; spring or source
“fountains” in this verse is ʿênōt. The verse calls the springs עֵינֹת, from עַיִן, a word that also means “eye.” A spring is an eye of the ground: water hidden in its depths opens at the surface.
ALSO GROWS
ʿayin: Eye
עַיִן
The same word names both the eye and the spring, linking an opening in the ground with the place where water comes into view.
maʿyan: Spring or fountain
מַעְיָן
This related word names a water source, keeping the verse’s focus on what rises from within the land.
יֹצְאִים
yōtseʾîm
GROWS FROM
יצא
yatsa
Go out; come forth
“spring out” in this verse is yōtseʾîm. The water is not merely present; it is going out from the depths. This root makes the land’s goodness an active emergence from hidden places into the open.
ALSO GROWS
mōtsāʾ: Outlet or source
מוֹצָא
An outlet is the place where what is within comes forth, illuminating the springs that emerge from the land.
hōtsî: Bring out or lead forth
הוֹצִיא
This causative form echoes the movement from hidden depths into visible, flowing water.
THE PATTERN
Life-giving water rises from hidden sources and flows outward to sustain what is above ground.
But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.He sendeth the springs into the valleys, which run among the hills.But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.THE THREAD
He sendeth the springs into the valleys, which run among the hills.Deuteronomy’s עֵינֹת (ʿênōt, “springs”) and Psalm’s מַעְיָנִים (maʿyanim, “springs”) share the עין word family. The psalm pictures those same water sources entering valleys and running among hills, unfolding the landscape described here.
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