Annual Reading Schedule - Torah Given Through Mosheh - Week 48 - "The Word Is Very Near You, In Your Mouth And In Your Heart" (Deuteronomy 28:58-31:30)

Some translations have the phrase, "in order to add drunkenness to thirst" in Deuteronomy 29:19, or some other word related to "drunkenness" or similar. What should this verse say exactly and what does the end of this verse mean?

Let's examine Deuteronomy 29:19 in a few different translations:

The ISR Scriptures 1998 – "And it shall be, when he hears the words of this curse, that he should bless himself in his heart, saying, 'I have peace though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart,' in order to add drunkenness to thirst."

King James Version – "And it come to pass, when he heareth the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of mine heart, to add drunkenness to thirst:"

My belief is that the Scriptures 1998 version, and possibly others using words like "drunkenness" may have been heavily influenced by the King James Version or Strong's Concordance which also may have been influenced by the King James Version. When digging deeper into this and looking at other translations, I'm not convinced this word translated "drunkenness" is even related to being drunk since there are other words in the Hebrew related to being drunk. Those include Strong's # H7937, H5433, or H7910. The Hebrew word in Deuteronomy 29:19 is from Strong's # H7302 which is only found, to the best of my understanding, in Deuteronomy 29:19, Isaiah 58:11, and Jeremiah 31:12.

The usage of this word in Isaiah 58:11 and Jeremiah 31:12 seem to indicate this word is related to being "watered" or "saturated". Something saturated is filled with water, satisfied with water. This reminds me of Psalms 1 which says:

Psalms 1:3 - "For he shall be as a tree Planted by the rivers of water, That yields its fruit in its season, And whose leaf does not wither, And whatever he does prospers."

Those who are well-watered are the children of Yahweh, those He declares righteous. What would be the opposite of that? The wicked – a dried up shrub – one who is not watered. The other word sometimes translated "thirst" in Deuteronomy 29:19 is from Strong's # H6771 which is also found in 2 Samuel 17:29, Psalms 107:5, Proverbs 25:21, and other verses where the meaning is clearly "thirsty".

Now, let's examine a few other translations of Deuteronomy 29:19:

Concordant Literal Version – "And it will come to be when he hears the words of this imprecation that he will bless himself in his heart, saying: I shall come to have peace, though I am going in the obduracy of my own heart, seeing that the satiated may be swept up with the thirsty."

Jewish Publication Society Bible – "and it come to pass, when he heareth the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying: 'I shall have peace, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart - that the watered be swept away with the dry';"

I think these translations might be shining a light on what this verse is essentially saying. The man being spoken of in this verse, according to the previous verse Deuteronomy 29:18, has a heart who has turned away from Yahweh. Then, in verse 19, it says that when this man hears the words of the curse that he blesses himself in his heart. What would be the more appropriate reaction? Well, if he had a heart that turned away and he had heard the words of the curse, the right reaction would be to repent and stop doing what is wrong and turn His heart back to Yahweh. Instead, we see it says he blesses himself in his heart.

What is the blessing with which he blesses himself?

You can see from the Scriptures 1998 version they ended the quote of the blessing at the word heart, making the blessing only:

'I have peace though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart".

However, what if the blessing was also the rest of the end of that verse as well? That would make the blessing, according to the Concordant Literal Version, possibly:

"I shall come to have peace, though I am going in the obduracy of my own heart, seeing that the satiated may be swept up with the thirsty."

If I were to paraphrase what I think this means, it seems kind of like if a person who is doing wrong was saying, "Hey, I'm going to keep on doing wrong and I'm going to be just fine how I am and I will have peace and blessings. Even if I keep walking in the evil of my heart, I will have peace and blessings. Because look at all these righteous [well-watered, saturated] people around me? Yahweh isn't going to come and destroy the land and bring evil into the land because there's all these righteous [well-watered, saturated] people around me [the thirsty, dry one], and if he did that then the righteous [the well-watered, saturated ones] would get destroyed along with me [the dry thirsty one who is the sinner]."

I hope that makes sense. That's my thoughts, anyhow, on what I think this verse means. I wanted to point it out and share my thoughts because the phrase, "In order to add drunkenness to thirst" is a little unclear and might make you think it means, "adding one sin on top of another sin", but it seems possible that this understanding I have shared above may be what this verse is actually trying to convey.