What Does Deuteronomy 9:18 Mean in the King James?
And I fell down before the LORD, as at the first, forty days and forty nights: I did neither eat bread, nor drink water, because of all your sins which ye sinned, in doing wickedly in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger.
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
One Hebrew root names both “your sins” and “you sinned,” joining the failures to the acts of missing.
THE MEANING
Here, wrongdoing is not an abstract label before the LORD: the people’s failures are named, and their conduct provokes anger. Moses falls before the LORD and fasts because of their wrongdoing. The verse holds communal accountability and intercession in one scene.
THE ROOT
חַטַּאתְכֶם
ḥaṭṭāʾtḵem
GROWS FROM
חטא
To miss, go wrong; by extension, to sin.
“sins / sinned” in this verse is ḥaṭṭāʾtḵem. The KJV gives two English forms, but the Hebrew repeats one seed: חטא (ḥāṭāʾ, “to miss”). “Your sins” and “you sinned” belong to one word family, keeping both the failures and the acts of missing in view.
ALSO GROWS
ḥēṭʾ: Sin; a miss or offense.
חֵטְא
This noun echoes the verse’s “sins,” showing that the named failures share the same root as the act of sinning.
ḥāṭāʾ: To miss; to sin.
חָטָא
This verb echoes “ye sinned,” binding the people’s actions to the same root as the failures named in the verse.
THE PATTERN
Intercession brings the failure of many before God through one who stands on their behalf.
And Moses besought the LORD his God, and said, LORD, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people, which thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power, and with a mighty hand?Therefore he said that he would destroy them, had not Moses his chosen stood before him in the breach, to turn away his wrath, lest he should destroy them.Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.THE THREAD
If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.The word translated “sin” here shares the root חטא (ḥāṭāʾ, “to miss”) with “sins” and “sinned” in Deuteronomy. Genesis pictures the miss crouching at the door; Deuteronomy names both the people’s failures and their acts of missing.
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