What Does Genesis 12:20 Mean?
And Pharaoh commanded men concerning him, and they sent him away, and his wife, and all that was his.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him: and they sent him away, and his wife, and all that he had.THE KEY
The verb שָׁלַח (shalach, send or release) turns Pharaoh’s order into a release carrying Abram, his wife, and everything he has out together.
THE MEANING
A constricting hold can be made to open: Pharaoh’s command sends Abram, his wife, and all that he has out together. Release is concrete here, reaching the person, the relationship, and what travels with them.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that release is only inward dissolves here: the order changes where Abram, his wife, and everything he has can be.
THE ROOT
וַיְשַׁלְּחוּ
wayeshallĕḥu
GROWS FROM
שלח
To send, send forth, extend the hand, or release.
“sent him away” in this verse is wayeshallĕḥu. The English “sent away” names motion, while שָׁלַח (shalach, send or release) also carries the sense of letting go. Here the release takes in Abram, his wife, and all he has; the whole household moves outward together.
ALSO GROWS
shilluach: Sending away; dismissal
שִׁלּוּחַ
This noun makes the verb’s sending-away action visible as a complete release, matching the departure Pharaoh orders.
shaliach: Messenger; one who is sent
שָׁלִיחַ
This branch shows that sending places someone on a path outward; here Abram and his household are the ones sent out.
shulchan: Table; provision set out
שֻׁלְחָן
The table carries the root’s outward movement into provision extended; here that movement includes all that Abram has.
THE PATTERN
A constricting hold gives way when release carries the whole life outward.
Now you shall see what I will do to the Great House, for with a gripping hand he shall let them go, and with a gripping hand he shall drive them out of his land.From the narrow place I call out to the LORD, and the LORD answers me in a wide place.And suddenly there came a great shaking, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken, and at once all the doors were opened, and every one's bonds were untied.THE THREAD
And the Egyptians gripped the people hard, to send them out of the land in haste; for they said, “We are all dead.”The same root, שָׁלַח (shalach, send or release), sends one household out here and a whole people out in Exodus. The household’s release opens onto the larger pattern of Egypt letting go.
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