What Does Romans 10:21 Mean in the King James?
But to Israel he saith, All day long I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying 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
God’s hands stay open all day toward people who refuse and argue back.
THE MEANING
The verse places the reader before a posture that does not withdraw: God’s hands remain stretched out all day toward people who resist persuasion and answer back. The resistance is real, and so is the continued reach.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that resistance makes a person unreachable: the verse holds outstretched hands toward those who resist and answer back.
THE ROOT
ἐξεπέτασα
exepetasa
GROWS FROM
πετάννυμι
petannymi
to spread or stretch out
“stretched forth” in this verse is exepetasa. The verb pictures hands spread out toward someone, while “all day long” makes the reach sustained. The posture stays open even as the people resist.
ALSO GROWS
petannymi: spread out
πετάννυμι
The base verb gives the gesture its open, extended shape.
ekpetannymi: stretch forth or spread out
ἐκπετάννυμι
This form makes the reaching movement explicit: the hands extend toward the people.
ἀπειθοῦντα
apeithounta
GROWS FROM
πείθω
peithō
to persuade, or to be persuaded and trust
“disobedient” in this verse is apeithounta. The Greek word carries the sense of refusing persuasion as well as disobedience. It frames the response as resistance to trust, not only a failure to follow a command.
ALSO GROWS
peithō: persuade; be persuaded or trust
πείθω
The verse’s refusal is set against the possibility of being persuaded.
pistis: trust, confidence
πίστις
This related word shows the trust that the refusal resists.
ἀντιλέγοντα
antilegonta
GROWS FROM
λέγω
legō
to say or speak
“Gainsaying” is counter-speech: the people speak against what is being said. The verse sets that opposition beside hands that remain extended.
ALSO GROWS
legō: say, speak
λέγω
This is the speaking root inside the word.
antilegō: speak against, contradict
ἀντιλέγω
The compound names the people’s answer as speech in opposition.
THE PATTERN
A resisting response does not make the reaching hand withdraw.
I have spread out my hands all the day unto a rebellious people, which walketh in a way that was not good, after their own thoughts;Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded;O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!THE THREAD
I have spread out my hands all the day unto a rebellious people, which walketh in a way that was not good, after their own thoughts;Romans repeats Isaiah’s image with the same Greek words for stretched-out hands, refusal, and speaking against. Isaiah adds that the people follow their own thoughts, while the hands remain spread through the whole day.
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