What Does Genesis 13:4 Mean?
To the place of the altar, which he had made there at the first, and there Abram called upon the nature of the LORD.
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
Unto the place of the altar, which he had made there at the first: and there Abram called on the name of the LORD.THE KEY
The first altar is not merely remembered: Abram returns to it and calls on the LORD’s name there.
THE MEANING
The verse shows a return to the place of first offering, where the call rises again. שֵׁם (shem, “name as nature”) holds the character of the one invoked, joining return with renewed encounter.
THE ROOT
וַיִּקְרָא
wayyiqra
GROWS FROM
קרא
קרא (qara) means to call, proclaim, or read aloud.
“called upon” in this verse is wayyiqra. English “called on” can sound like a request sent upward; קרא (qara, “call or proclaim”) also carries the sense of voicing something aloud. Here, the call is made at the first altar, so return and invocation meet in the same place.
ALSO GROWS
qeri’ah: calling or reading aloud
קְרִיאָה
This branch keeps the spoken quality of Abram’s call in view.
miqra: convocation or reading
מִקְרָא
The same root can describe a call that gathers people, opening the call beyond a private request.
מִזְבֵּחַ
mizbeach
GROWS FROM
זבח
זבח (zabach) means to slaughter or sacrifice.
English “altar” can sound like a stationary object; מִזְבֵּחַ (mizbeach, “altar”) carries the root זבח (zabach, “sacrifice”) in its name. Abram returns to a place whose name holds the act of offering within it.
ALSO GROWS
zevach: sacrifice
זֶבַח
This branch names the offering associated with the altar.
zabach: to slaughter or sacrifice
זָבַח
The verb makes the altar’s connection to the act itself visible.
THE PATTERN
Calling on the LORD’s name gives voice to relationship at a place of offering and beyond.
And he pulled up from there to the mountain east of Bethel, and stretched out his tent, with Bethel to the west and Hai to the east. And there he built an altar to the LORD, and called upon the nature of the LORD.I offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and in the nature of the LORD I call.For everyone who calls upon the nature of the LORD will be delivered.THE THREAD
And he pulled up from there to the mountain east of Bethel, and stretched out his tent, with Bethel to the west and Hai to the east. And there he built an altar to the LORD, and called upon the nature of the LORD.Genesis 12:8 uses the same verb וַיִּקְרָא (wayyiqra, “and he called”) and the same phrase about the LORD’s name. Genesis 13:4 returns to the altar of that first call, joining the place of offering to the act of invocation.
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