What Does Exodus 32:9 Mean in the King James?
And the LORD said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people:
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 verse locates resistance at the place of turning: a hard neck keeps the whole person facing the way it already faces.
THE MEANING
The LORD sees you clearly and names a hard posture without disguising it. When you will not turn, the resistance is not hidden from that seeing; it is the very thing brought into the open.
THE ROOT
קְשֵׁה־עֹרֶף
qĕšēh-ʿōrep̄
GROWS FROM
קשה
q-š-h
To be hard, severe, or difficult.
“stiffnecked” in this verse is qĕšēh-ʿōrep̄. The Hebrew phrase joins hard with the nape of the neck. English compresses that image into one word, but the phrase locates resistance where a person turns: the posture stays fixed toward what is already in view.
ALSO GROWS
qāšeh: Hard or severe.
קָשֶׁה
This adjective carries the same seed as the hard neck in this verse.
ʾaqšeh: I will harden; I will make hard.
אַקְשֶׁה
The same root describes hardening in Exodus 7:3, so this word-family names both a hardened condition and the act of hardening.
רָאִיתִי
rāʾîtî
GROWS FROM
ראה
r-ʾ-h
To see, look, or perceive.
“seen” in this verse is rāʾîtî. The LORD’s seeing is the attention that precedes the naming of the people’s condition. Elsewhere this same root can carry seeing that becomes provision, while here the seeing brings a difficult truth into the open.
ALSO GROWS
rōʾeh: One who sees; a seer.
רֹאֶה
This form belongs to the same family as “I have seen,” emphasizing perception rather than a distant label.
yirʾeh: He will see; rendered “will provide” in Genesis 22:14.
יִרְאֶה
The same verb can describe seeing what is needed and meeting it; that shade belongs to the root even though this verse voices a diagnosis.
מֹשֶׁה
Mōsheh
GROWS FROM
משה
m-š-h
To draw out, especially from water.
Moses’ name carries the nature of one drawn out. Here he receives the LORD’s clear sight of a people whose posture resists turning.
ALSO GROWS
māšâ: To draw out.
מָשָׁה
This verb is the root associated with Moses’ name and its meaning.
mĕšîtihū: I drew him out.
מְשִׁיתִהוּ
In Exodus 2:10, this form names the drawing out of the water that gives Moses his name.
THE PATTERN
When a person hardens against correction, resistance becomes visible as a refusal to turn and hear.
Understand therefore, that the LORD thy God giveth thee not this good land to possess it for thy righteousness; for thou art a stiffnecked people.He, that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.THE THREAD
And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt.The word translated “stiffnecked” begins with qashah, the same root as “I will harden” in this verse. The shared root places human stubbornness and divine hardening inside the same word-family; hardness does not belong only to the people.
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