What Does Deuteronomy 9:17 Mean in the King James?
And I took the two tables, and cast them out of my two hands, and brake them before your eyes.
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 fracture is itself the message: the rupture stands exposed before your eyes.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks of a break made visible: what is held in two hands is cast down and shattered before your eyes. The text lets the rupture remain exposed, without disguising brokenness as wholeness.
THE ROOT
וָאֲשַׁבְּרֵם
va’ashabberem
GROWS FROM
שׁבר
sh-b-r
To break or shatter.
“brake” in this verse is va’ashabberem. The same root names the action of breaking and the condition of being broken. It describes these tablets and, in Psalm 34:18, a broken heart, carrying the image of fracture from what is held in the hands into the inner life.
ALSO GROWS
shavur: Broken.
שָׁבוּר
This form appears in the phrase “broken heart” in Psalm 34:18, linking the tablets’ fracture to the language of inner brokenness.
shever: Breaking, breach, or fracture.
שֶׁבֶר
The noun names the rupture left by breaking, giving the action in this verse a form that can be seen and spoken of.
THE PATTERN
A visible breaking can give an unseen rupture a form that can be seen.
And it came to pass, as soon as he came nigh unto the camp, that he saw the calf, and the dancing: and Moses’ anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of his hands, and brake them beneath the mount.And shalt say unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Even so will I break this people and this city, as one breaketh a potter’s vessel, that cannot be made whole again: and they shall bury them in Tophet, till there be no place to bury.And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me.THE THREAD
The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.“Broken heart” uses a form of the same Hebrew root, שבר (sh-b-r), that names the tablets’ breaking. The root carries fracture from what is held in the hands into the inner life.
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