What Does Leviticus 26:44 Mean in the King James?

And yet for all that, when they be in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant with them: for I am the LORD their God.

Leviticus 26:44 · 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 enemy land is not proof of rejection: God names the people as his own even where their circumstances seem to say otherwise.

THE MEANING

When you are in a hostile place, this verse does not treat that location as proof that God has discarded or loathed the people bound to him. The covenant remains unbroken in God’s own words, and “I am the LORD their God” names that bond in the present.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the belief that hardship, displacement, or living among enemies proves God has repudiated his covenant with his people.

THE ROOT

לֹא־מְאַסְתִּים

lo-me'astim

GROWS FROM

מאס

m-'-s

Reject, refuse, or set aside.

The verb under “cast them away” is the language of deliberate refusal. The verse denies that act even in enemy territory: the land changes, but rejection is not what God does to the people bound to him.

ALSO GROWS

ma'asu: They rejected or refused.

מָאֲסוּ

Psalm 118:22 uses this root for the builders’ rejection of the stone; here the same kind of setting aside is explicitly denied of God’s people.

ma'asta: You rejected.

מָאַסְתָּ

In 1 Samuel 15:23, this root describes rejection of the LORD’s word and the rejection that follows; here it is negated of God’s response.

לְהָפֵר

lehafer

GROWS FROM

הפר

p-r-r

Break, annul, or make void.

“break” in this verse is lehafer. The verse names covenant-breaking as an act God will not perform. This root also describes annulment and the frustrating of a purpose, so the promise speaks to the bond’s continued force, not merely to a passing feeling.

ALSO GROWS

tapheru: You break or violate.

תָּפֵרוּ

Jeremiah 33:20 uses this root for breaking God’s covenant with the day and night; the same verb makes annulment the precise possibility this verse rules out.

yapher: He will annul or make void.

יָפֵר

Isaiah 14:27 uses this root for disannulling what the LORD has purposed, extending the word from a broken bond to a thwarted purpose.

THE PATTERN

A present rupture does not by itself mean God has repudiated a relationship he names as his own.

For the LORD will not cast off his people, neither will he forsake his inheritance.

Psalm 94:14 · KJVThe verse holds together two forms of abandonment and says neither describes God’s relation to his people.

For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.

Romans 11:29 · KJVGod’s gifts and calling are not withdrawn as though the relationship had been revoked.

If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he can not deny himself.

2 Timothy 2:13 · KJVEven human unsteadiness does not make God deny the nature he has named.

THE THREAD

Thus saith the LORD; If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith the LORD.

Jeremiah 31:37 · KJV

“Cast off” uses the same root, ⁨מאס⁩ (ma’as), as “cast them away” here. Jeremiah places that rejection behind an impossible condition; Leviticus speaks the same refusal from within the enemy land, where rejection might seem certain.

Read the SDV Bible.

Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.

Get Selah Verse

The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.

Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us