Deuteronomy 29:18 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Deuteronomy 29:18
Lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turneth away this day from the LORD our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations; lest there should be among you a root that beareth gall and wormwood;
there is or are (or any other form of the verb to be · cardinal number, both genders singular absolute
man
אִ֣ישׁ'ish
H376
a man as an individual or a male person · noun, common masculine singular absolute
woman
אִשָּׁ֞ה'i.Shah
H802
a woman · noun, common feminine singular absolute
family
מִשְׁפָּחָ֣הmish.pa.Chah
H4940
a family · noun, common feminine singular absolute
tribe
שֵׁ֗בֶטShe.vet
H7626
a scion · noun, common masculine singular absolute
heart
לְבָב֨וֹle.va.Vo
H3824
the heart (as the most interior organ) · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
away
פֹנֶ֤הfo.Neh
H6437
to turn · verb, qal active participle, masculine singular absolute
day
הַיּוֹם֙hai.yOm
H3117
a day (as the warm hours) · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
LORD
יְהוָ֣הYah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
God
אֱלֹהֵ֔ינוּ'e.lo.Hei.nu
H430
gods in the ordinary sense · noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix
go
יָלַךְyâlak
H3212
to walk (literally or figuratively)
serve
לַעֲבֹ֔דla.'a.Vod
H5647
to work (in any sense) · preposition + verb, qal infinitive construct
gods
אֱלֹהֵ֖י'e.lo.Hei
H430
gods in the ordinary sense · noun, common masculine plural construct
nations
הַגּוֹיִ֣םha.go.Yim
H1471
a foreign nation · definite article + noun, common masculine plural absolute
be
יֵ֣שׁyesh
H3426
there is or are (or any other form of the verb to be · cardinal number, both genders singular absolute
root
שֹׁ֛רֶשׁSho.resh
H8328
a root (literally or figuratively) · noun, common masculine singular absolute
beareth
פֹּרֶ֥הpo.Reh
H6509
to bear fruit (literally or figuratively) · verb, qal active participle, masculine singular absolute
gall
רֹ֖אשׁrosh
H7219
a poisonous plant · noun, common masculine singular absolute
wormwood
וְלַעֲנָֽהve.la.'a.Nah
H3939
wormwood (regarded as poisonous · conjunction + noun, common feminine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Hebrews 12:15 Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled;
Deuteronomy 11:16-17 Take heed to yourselves, that your heart be not deceived, and ye turn aside, and serve other gods, and worship them;
Deuteronomy 13:1-15 If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder,
Jeremiah 9:15 Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood, and give them water of…
Acts 8:23 For I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity.
Hosea 10:4 They have spoken words, swearing falsely in making a covenant: thus judgment springeth up as hemlock in the furrows of the field.
Amos 6:12 Shall horses run upon the rock? will one plow there with oxen? for ye have turned judgment into gall, and the fruit of righteousness into he…
Hebrews 3:12 Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Deuteronomy 29:10–end
It appears by the length of the sentences here, and by the copiousness and pungency of the expressions, that Moses, now that he was drawing near to the close of his discourse, was very warm and zealous, and very desirous to impress what he said upon the minds of this unthinking people. To bind them the faster to God and duty, he here, with great solemnity of expression (to make up the want of the external ceremony that was used Exo 24:4 etc.), concludes a bargain (as it were) between them and God, an everlasting covenant, which God would not forget and they must not. He requires not their explicit consent, but lays the matter plainly before them, and then leaves it between God and their own…
Ye stand this day all of you before the Lord your God--The whole congregation of Israel, of all ages and conditions, all--young as well as old; menials as well as masters; native Israelites as well as naturalized strangers--all were assembled before the tabernacle to renew the Sinaitic covenant. None of them were allowed to consider themselves as exempt from the terms of that national compact, lest any lapsing into idolatry might prove a root of bitterness, spreading its noxious seed and corrupt influence all around (compare Heb 12:15). It was of the greatest consequence thus to reach the heart and conscience of everyone, for some might delude themselves with the vain idea that by taking the…
Lest there should be among you man or woman, or family, or tribe,.... These words stand in connection with Deuteronomy 29:15, with Deuteronomy 29:16 being in a parenthesis, as may be observed, and show the design of this solemn appearance of the people, and their entering afresh into covenant; which was to prevent their falling into idolatry, and preserve them from it, whether a single person of either sex, or a whole family, or even a tribe, which might be in danger of being infected with it, and so all the people:
whose heart turneth away this day from the Lord our God, to go and serve the gods of those nations; whose heart is enticed and drawn aside at the remembrance of the idols he has…
The Church Fathers
Is there among you man or woman, or family or tribe whose mind has departed from the Lord your God going to serve the gods of those people? Is there a root among you that grows in gall and bitterness? And it will happen that when someone hears the words of this curse and says in his heart, saying: "Holy things happen to me, because I walk in the error of my heart so that the sinner does not lose at the same time the one who is without sin", God He will not forgive him, but the anger of the Lord and his jealousy against that man will be kindled, and all the curses of this covenant that are written in the book of this law will fall on him. The text reads as follows: Is there anyone among you? You have to understand it, then, in the form of a question, in case there is one. If there had been, it filled him with terror, so that no one would say in his heart, upon hearing those curses: Be holy to me (curses be holy things to me), for I walk in the error of my heart, that is, I wish these things do not happen to me; that bad things do not happen to me, but holy things, that is, auspicious and favorable, because I walk in the error of my heart, following the gods of the Gentiles and giving them worship as with impunity. It will not be like that, therefore. That the sinner does not lose the one who is without sin at the same time. It means: make sure that no one of you convinces you to do these things who thinks them. God will not forgive him, both the one who thinks such things, and the one who has been persuaded by them, just as the other had thought when he said: Be holy to me, as if removing the force of that curse in this way. But then the wrath of the Lord and his jealousy will be kindled against that man, when he thinks that he will turn it away from himself, by saying those things in his heart. And all the curses of this covenant, which are written in the book of this law, will fall on him. All of them can not come on one man, because a man can not die so many times how many genera of deaths are announced here. The text says "all" by "any", so that he will not be free from all those to whom any of the curses that cause him to perish come to him. The words: So that the sinner does not lose at the same time the one who is without sin, it is not necessary to take them in the sense that the Greek word antarcton designates an absolutely clean and pure one of all…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Covenant — A contract or agreement between two parties. In the Old Testament the Hebrew word berith is always thus translated. Berith is derived from a root which means “to cut,” and hence a covenant is a…
Gall — (1) Heb. mererah, meaning “bitterness” (Job 16:13); i.e., the bile secreted in the liver. This word is also used of the poison of asps (20:14), and of the vitals, the seat of life (25). (2.) Heb.…
Hemlock — (1.) Heb. rosh (Hos. 10:4; rendered “gall” in Deut. 29:18; 32:32; Ps. 69:21; Jer. 9:15; 23:15; “poison,” Job 20:16; “venom,” Deut. 32:33). “Rosh is the name of some poisonous plant which grows…
Poison — (1.) Heb. hemah, “heat,” the poison of certain venomous reptiles (Deut. 32:24, 33; Job 6:4; Ps. 58:4), causing inflammation. (2.) Heb. rosh, “a head,” a poisonous plant (Deut. 29:18), growing…
Wormwood — Heb. la’anah, the Artemisia absinthium of botanists. It is noted for its intense bitterness (Deut. 29:18; Prov. 5:4; Jer. 9:15; Amos 5:7). It is a type of bitterness, affliction, remorse, punitive…
Backsliders · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Confidence · FALSE — FALSE
Families · Warning against departing from God — Warning against departing from God
Family · .Warned against — .Warned against
Gall · A bitter herb — A bitter herb
Heart, Character Of The Unrenewed · Prone to depart from God — Prone to depart from God
Deuteronomy 29:10-28
10. Ye stand this day all of you before the Lord your God; your captains of your tribes, your elders, and your officers, with all the men of Israel,
10. Vos adstatis hodie omnes vos eoram Jehova Deo vestro, principes vestri tribuum vestrarum, seniores vestri, et praefecti vestri, omnes viri Israel:
11. Your little ones, your wives, and thy stranger that is in thy camp, from the hewer of thy wood unto the drawer of thy water;
11. Parvuli vestri, uxores vestrae, et peregrini tui qui habitant in medio castrorum tuorum, a caesore lignorum tuorum usque ad haurientem aquas tuas:
12. That thou shouldest enter into covenant with the Lord thy God, and into his oath, which t…
"That there may not be among you," etc.: this sentence may be easily explained by introducing a thought which may be easily supplied, such as "consider this," or "do not forget what ye have seen, that no one, either man or woman, family or tribe, may turn away from Jehovah our God." - "That there may not be a root among you which bears poison and wormwood as fruit." A striking image of the destructive fruit borne by idolatry (cf. Heb 12:15). Rosh stands for a plant of a very bitter taste, as we may see from the frequency with which it is combined with לענה, wormwood: it is not, strictly speaking, a poisonous plant, although the word is used in Job 20:16 to denote the poison of serpents, beca…
This metaphor describes idolatry (the root), which, if cultivated, would result in idol worship (the fruit).
Rashi on Deuteronomy 29:18
והתברך בלבבו AND HE BLESS HIMSELF IN HIS HEART — The word והתברך has the meaning of “blessing”. In his heart he will imagine for himself a blessing of peace, saying, “These curses will not come upon me, I shall have peace”.
והתברך is benoir soi in old French, i.e. the verb is reflexive like והתגלח, “he shall shave himself”, והתפלל, he shall pray lit., he shall make himself the object of intercession.
בשררות לבי אלך means IN THE VIEWS OF MY HEART WILL I WALK, שררות being of a root which means to look, to see, as (Numbers 25:17): “I shall see him (אשרנו), but not now”; it is as much as to say, I will follow what my heart sees good to do.
למען ספות הרוה TO ADD DRUNKENNESS [TO THE THIRST] — I…
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
