the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
free while helping to build churches and support pastors in Uganda.
Click here to learn more!
Bible Dictionaries
Jeshurun
Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary
or a name given to the collective political body of Israelites. Some derive the word from ישר , just or righteous, and so make it to signify a righteous people. Montanus renders it rectitudo, and so does the Samaritan version. But it seems a considerable objection against this sense, that Israel is called Jeshurun at the very time that they are upbraided with their sins and their rebellion: "Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked," &c, Deuteronomy 32:15 . It is replied, Jeshurun is the diminutive of ישר , (for nomen auctum in fine est nomen diminutivum, ) and so imports, that though, in general and on the whole, they were a righteous people, yet they were not without great faults. Perhaps Cocceius has given as probable an interpretation as any. He derives the word from שור , which signifies go see, behold, or discover; from whence, in the future tense, plural, comes ישרו , which, with the addition of nun paragogicum, makes Jeshurun; that is, "the people who had the vision of God." This makes the name of Jeshurun to be properly applied to Israel, not only when Moses is called their king, but when they are upbraided with their rebellion against God; since the peculiar manifestation which God had made of himself to them was a great aggravation of their ingratitude and rebellion.
These files are public domain.
Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com. Used by Permission.
Watson, Richard. Entry for 'Jeshurun'. Richard Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/wtd/j/jeshurun.html. 1831-2.
