Deuteronomy 28:67 Meaning and Explanation
“In the morning thou shalt say, Would God it were even! and at even thou shalt say, Would God it were morning! for the fear of thine heart wherewith thou shalt fear, and for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see.”
King James Version (KJV)
Read this verse in context with translation switching:
Read Full Chapter →Anyone who has lain awake wishing for daylight, then dreaded the day once it came, recognizes the rhythm Moses describes. He puts the exile's whole condition into two sentences a person actually says out loud. The verse matters because it shows that Scripture knows this cycle from the inside and refuses to pretend it away.
Moses pictures a person so worn by terror that every hour feels worse than the one coming. Morning longs for evening, evening longs for morning, because what the eyes keep seeing gives no relief.
The Context of Deuteronomy 28:67
This is the second to last line of the long covenant section that runs from Deuteronomy 27 through 28, delivered by Moses in Moab before Israel crosses the Jordan. The curse portion begins at verse 15 and builds through disease, siege, defeat, and deportation. Verse 34 already warned that the sight of the eyes would drive a person mad, and verse 67 repeats that phrase as the section closes. Verse 68 follows with ships carrying the people back toward Egypt, a reversal of the exodus, ending the chapter.
What Does Deuteronomy 28:67 Mean?
'Would God it were even' is a cry of longing for the other end of the day. The structure is a closed loop: the morning wish reaches for evening, the evening wish reaches for morning, and neither arrival helps. Moses then gives two causes joined by 'for.' The first is internal, 'the fear of thine heart wherewith thou shalt fear,' a doubled construction that intensifies the noun by repeating its verb. The second is external, 'the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see.' Terror inside and horror outside feed each other, so the sufferer keeps trading one hour for another and finds the same weight waiting.
Placing this cry at the end of the curse list is deliberate. The chapter opened with blessings measured in baskets, fields, herds, and children, all of them countable goods. It closes with a measure taken from the human interior, where nothing can be counted at all. Deuteronomy consistently ties Israel's life in the land to hearing the voice of the LORD, and chapter 27 arranged for the tribes to answer the covenant curses aloud with Amen. Moses is preparing a generation to choose with open eyes, which is why chapter 30 will place life and death, blessing and cursing, plainly before them.
Scripture returns to this restless longing elsewhere. Job asks in Job 7:4 when the night will be gone, and he tosses until the dawning. The pattern shows how far the consequences of covenant breaking reach, past fields and walls into a person's sense of time. Deuteronomy itself does not stop here. Chapter 30 opens with a scattered people calling these words to mind among the nations, turning back, and being gathered by the LORD from the farthest place under heaven. The fear described in verse 67 has an address it can travel toward, and Moses gives it two chapters later.
Deuteronomy 28:67 in the Original Language
mi yitten (מִי־יִתֵּן), 'Would God' -- a Hebrew wish formula meaning literally 'who will give,' used to voice a longing for something out of reach; the KJV renders it with an older English exclamation of longing.
Bible Verses Related to Deuteronomy 28:67
“So that thou shalt be mad for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see.”
- Deuteronomy 28:34
“When I lie down, I say, When shall I arise, and the night be gone? and I am full of tossings to and fro unto the dawning of the day.”
- Job 7:4
“Arise, cry out in the night: in the beginning of the watches pour out thine heart like water before the face of the LORD: lift up thy hands toward him for the life of thy young children, that faint for hunger in the top of every street.”
- Lamentations 2:19
“That then the LORD thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath scattered thee.”
- Deuteronomy 30:3
Where Deuteronomy 28:67 Echoes in Scripture
Luke 21:26 carries this verse into a wider setting when Jesus describes hearts failing for fear and for looking after the things coming on the earth. The two elements Moses names, dread within and what the eyes take in, appear together again in the mouth of the Lord. Jesus adds an instruction Moses could only imply: when these things begin, lift up your heads, because redemption draws near. The same chapter that names the terror also names where deliverance comes from.
How to Apply Deuteronomy 28:67 Today
Cycles of dread often run on their own momentum, and this verse gives us permission to admit that plainly. When mornings feel unbearable and nights feel longer, we can stop treating that as a failure of faith and start treating it as something to bring into the light. Practical mercy helps: a fixed hour of prayer, a psalm read aloud, one trusted person told the truth, sleep and food and medical care taken seriously. We can also be the steady presence for someone else caught in the loop, sitting with them through an evening they dread.
Reflection & Prayer
Which hour of the day is hardest for us right now, and what would it look like to meet God there on purpose? Consider praying: Father, you know the hour I dread. Meet me in it. Quiet what my heart magnifies and what my eyes replay, and let me find your mercy waiting at both ends of the day. Amen.