Deuteronomy 29:19

That he bless himself in his heart ;—congratulate himself— saying, I shall have peace — i.e; all shall be well with me—though—rather, for— I walk in the imagination of mine heart ; literally, in the firmness or hardness of my heart , ( שְׁרִירוּת , from שָׁרַר , to twist together, to be tough or firm); the word is always used in a bad sense in Hebrew, though not in Aramaic (cf. Psalms 81:13 (12) ; Jeremiah 3:17 ; Jeremiah 7:24 ; Jeremiah 9:13 (14) ; Jeremiah 11:8 ). To add drunkenness to thirst ; a proverbial expression, of which very different explanations have been given. It is now generally admitted that the verb ( סְפוֹת ) cannot be taken here in the sense of "add," but has its proper sense of pouring out, pouring away, destroying. The word rendered "drunkenness" ( רָוֶת , from רָוָה , to be sated with moisture, to be drenched) means rather "sated, drenched, well-watered;" and the word rendered "thirst" ( צְמֵאָה , from צָמֵא , to thirst) is properly thirsty, and is used of dry land ( Isaiah 44:3 ); both are adjectives, and a substantive is to be supplied. Some supply נֶפֶשׁ , soul or person; others, אֶרֶץ , land. The former render, "The full [soul] with the thirsty" (Gesenius); or, "Them that are sated with them that are thirsty," i . e . as well those who have imbibed the poison as those who thirst for it (Knobel); or "That the sated [soul] may destroy the thirsty," i . e . that the impious one, restrained by no law and, as it were, drunk with crime, may corrupt others, also prone to evil, and bring on them destruction (Maurer). Those who supply "land," render "To destroy the well-watered [land] with the dry." This last seems the preferable rendering; but the general meaning is the same in either case, viz. that the effect of such hardness of heart would be to destroy one and all. "The Orientals are fond of such bipartite forms of expressing the whole" (Knobel; cf. Deuteronomy 32:36 ).