What Does Genesis 14:3 Mean?

All these joined together in the valley of Siddim, which is the Salt Sea.

Genesis 14:3 · SDV

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.

This verse in the King James

King James wording

King James Version

All these were joined together in the vale of Siddim, which is the salt sea.

THE KEY

“Joined together” is the Hebrew word for entering a company: these powers are bound to one another, not merely gathered in one place.

THE MEANING

When separate powers bind themselves to a shared cause, they become one company with a shared stake. The Salt Sea names the place; the verb reveals the bond between them.

THE ROOT

חָבְרוּ

ḥāveru

GROWS FROM

חבר

to join, bind, or associate

“joined together” in this verse is ḥāveru. The verb ⁨חָבְרוּ⁩ (ḥāveru, “they joined”) comes from ⁨חבר⁩, the root of joining and associating. Its branches include a companion and something made compact together, so the verse describes a bond between these powers, not just their proximity.

ALSO GROWS

ḥāver: companion, associate

חָבֵר

A companion is someone joined in company with another; this gives the alliance a sense of shared belonging.

ḥubberah: was joined, made compact together

חֻבְּרָה

In Psalm 122:3 the same root describes a city joined into a whole, showing how joining can shape a company or a structure.

THE PATTERN

Joining turns separate parts into one company or structure.

And you shall make fifty taches of gold, and join the curtains together with the taches; and it shall be one dwelling.

Exodus 26:6 · SDVSeparate curtains are joined into one tabernacle, just as separate powers become one company.

Jerusalem is built as a city bound together.

Psalm 122:3 · SDVThe same Hebrew root describes a city joined into a coherent whole.

In whom the whole building, joined at the joints, grows into a set-apart temple in the Lord.

Ephesians 2:21 · SDVSeparate parts are joined into a growing structure, extending the pattern from a company to a temple.

THE THREAD

Jerusalem is built as a city bound together.

Psalm 122:3 · SDV

“Compact together” translates a form of the same root ⁨חבר⁩ (ḥ-b-r, “join or associate”) used for “joined together” here. In one verse it binds powers into a company; in the other, it joins a city into a whole.

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