What Does Deuteronomy 9:11 Mean in the King James?

And it came to pass at the end of forty days and forty nights, that the LORD gave me the two tables of stone, even the tables of the covenant.

Deuteronomy 9:11 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

The covenant is handed into human keeping as a gift, so its first movement is from God toward the receiver.

THE MEANING

This verse places covenant before you as something received. Its words take tangible form and enter human keeping as a gift, here and now.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

This verse undoes the belief that covenant begins with human achievement: its words are given to Moses.

THE ROOT

נָתַן

natan

GROWS FROM

נתן

To give, set, or place.

⁨נָתַן⁩ (natan, “gave”) comes from ⁨נתן⁩ (natan, “give, set, place”). Here, giving and placing meet: the covenant comes into Moses’ keeping as something tangible.

ALSO GROWS

netinah: Giving; an act of giving.

נְתִינָה

This noun from ⁨נתן⁩ makes the act behind the verse’s “gave” visible as a giving.

mattanah: Gift.

מַתָּנָה

This related word names what is given: the tablets arrive as a gift placed in Moses’ keeping.

THE PATTERN

Covenant is given in a tangible form and placed where a person can carry its words.

And he gave unto Moses, when he had made an end of communing with him upon mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God.

Exodus 31:18 · KJVThe covenant words take the form of stone tablets given to Moses and written by God.

For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:

Hebrews 8:10 · KJVThe covenant’s words are placed within people, carried in mind and heart.

THE THREAD

And he gave unto Moses, when he had made an end of communing with him upon mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God.

Exodus 31:18 · KJV

The same Hebrew root ⁨נתן⁩ (natan, “give”) appears in both verses. Exodus names the given stone tables as testimony and says they are written with God’s finger: the waiting ends with covenant words placed into human keeping.

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