Deuteronomy 28:29

and at noon you will grope about like a blind man in the darkness. You will not prosper in your ways. Day after day you will be oppressed and plundered, with no one to save you.

Berean Standard Bible

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Study note

Setting — Moses addresses the Israelites on the plains of Moab, listing covenant curses that follow disobedience. The text describes a state of total disorientation and helplessness imposed by God.

The words — מְמַשֵּׁ֣שׁ (me.ma.Shesh) means "groping" and בַּֽ/צָּהֳרַ֗יִם (ba./tzo.ho.Ra.yim) means "in the noontide." Together they describe the physical act of stumbling blindly during broad daylight.

The thread — The text's daytime blindness image appears in Isaiah 59:10 as a metaphor for spiritual disorientation and in Job 5:14 as a picture of divine judgment. It parallels the prolonged oppression under Moab recorded in Judges 3:14.

Why it lands — The text states that covenant disobedience removes direction and deliverance, leaving a person without prosperity or rescue. It requires the reader to acknowledge the concrete consequences of breaking the covenant rather than treating the warning as abstract poetry.

Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.

The Hebrew words

וְהָיִ֜יתָve./ha.Yi.taand/ you will be מְמַשֵּׁ֣שׁme.ma.Sheshgroping בַּֽצָּהֳרַ֗יִםba./tzo.ho.Ra.yimin the/ noontide<s>כַּאֲשֶׁ֨רka./'a.Sherjust/ as יְמַשֵּׁ֤שׁye.ma.Sheshhe gropes הָעִוֵּר֙ha./'i.Ver<the>/ blind [person]בָּאֲפֵלָ֔הba./'a.fe.Lahin the/ darkness וְלֹ֥אve./Lo'and/ not תַצְלִ֖יחַtatz.Li.achyou will make successful אֶת־'et-<obj.>דְּרָכֶ֑יךָde.ra.Khei./khaways/ your וְהָיִ֜יתָve./ha.Yi.taand/ you will be אַ֣ךְ'akhonly עָשׁ֧וּק'a.Shukoppressed וְגָז֛וּלve./ga.Zuland/ robbed כָּל־kol-all הַיָּמִ֖יםhai./ya.Mimthe/ days וְאֵ֥יןve./'Einand/ there not מוֹשִֽׁיעַ׃mo.Shi.a'[will be] a deliverer

King James Version

And thou shalt grope at noonday, as the blind gropeth in darkness, and thou shalt not prosper in thy ways: and thou shalt be only oppressed and spoiled evermore, and no man shall save thee.

Cross-references

Isaiah 59:10 Like the blind, we feel our way along the wall, groping like those without eyes. We stumble at midday as in the twilight; among the vigorous we are like the dead.
Job 5:14 They encounter darkness by day and grope at noon as in the night.
Judges 3:14 The Israelites served Eglon king of Moab eighteen years.
Judges 4:2 So the LORD sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. The commander of his forces was Sisera, who lived in Harosheth-hagoyim.
Judges 6:1 Again the Israelites did evil in the sight of the LORD; so He delivered them into the hand of Midian for seven years,
Judges 10:8 who that very year harassed and oppressed the Israelites, and they did so for eighteen years to all the Israelites on the other side of the Jordan in Gilead, the land of the Amorites.
Judges 13:1 Again the Israelites did evil in the sight of the LORD, so He delivered them into the hand of the Philistines for forty years.
Psalms 106:40 So the anger of the LORD burned against His people, and He abhorred His own inheritance.
1 Samuel 13:5 Now the Philistines assembled to fight against Israel with three thousand chariots, six thousand horsemen, and troops as numerous as the sand on the seashore. They went up and camped at Michmash, east of Beth-aven.
1 Samuel 13:19 And no blacksmith could be found in all the land of Israel, because the Philistines had said, “The Hebrews must not be allowed to make swords or spears.”