What Does Deuteronomy 9:27 Mean in the King James?
Remember thy servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; look not unto the stubbornness of this people, nor to their wickedness, nor to their sin:
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 people’s failure is named plainly, but it does not become their only remembered nature.
THE MEANING
Right now, this plea holds a people’s stubbornness, wickedness, and missing plainly in view without letting those words erase a remembered bond. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are named as servants; Isaac’s name, Yitzchak (יִצְחָק, “he laughs”), carries laughter within that remembered line. The wrongdoing is visible, but it is not the only thing the prayer asks to see.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie undone is that present wrongdoing cancels every remembered relationship and becomes the only truth by which a person or people can be seen.
THE ROOT
זְכֹר
zekhor
GROWS FROM
זכר
Remember, recall, bring to mind.
“Remember” in this verse is zekhor. The root also grows into words for mentioning and memorializing. Here, naming Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob makes remembrance an act of bringing a bond into view.
ALSO GROWS
zikkaron: Memorial or remembrance.
זִכָּרוֹן
A memorial keeps something present to attention, as the named servants are brought into this plea.
hizkir: Mention or remind.
הִזְכִּיר
This branch makes the link between remembering and speaking names explicit.
קְשִׁי
qeshi
GROWS FROM
קשה
Be hard or difficult.
The word translated “stubbornness” carries the texture of hardness and resistance. That texture sharpens the charge while the plea keeps the people’s condition beside a remembered relationship.
ALSO GROWS
qasheh: Hard or difficult.
קָשֶׁה
It shows the concrete quality carried by the word for stubbornness.
hiqshah: Make hard or harden.
הִקְשָׁה
This branch makes the movement toward hardness visible in the accusation.
חַטָּאת
chatta't
GROWS FROM
חטא
Miss or err.
“Sin” in this verse is chatta't. The verse’s final word is rooted in missing. Beside “remember,” it shows how a miss can be named plainly without becoming the only thing held in view.
ALSO GROWS
chata: Miss or err.
חָטָא
The verb carries the root’s sense of missing into an action.
chet: A miss or offense.
חֵטְא
This related noun makes the root’s connection to the verse’s final charge clear.
THE PATTERN
Remembering a covenant brings its bond into the present view, even when visible distress could eclipse it.
And God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle that was with him in the ark: and God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters asswaged;He hath remembered his covenant for ever, the word which he commanded to a thousand generations.He hath holpen his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy;THE THREAD
Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swarest by thine own self, and saidst unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it for ever.The same root, זכר (zakar, “remember”), opens this plea, followed by the names of the servants. The repeated wording shows remembrance bringing the bond with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob into view alongside the people’s failure.
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