What Does Genesis 17:21 Mean?
But I will make my covenant stand with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this appointed time in the year to come.
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
But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year.THE KEY
The covenant is given a name, a lineage, and a date: Isaac, Sarah’s son, at the appointed time.
THE MEANING
The covenant’s promise takes form in a particular life and at an appointed time. Isaac’s name carries laughter within the promise, joining what seems beyond reach to a future Sarah bears.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The promise does not end with the person who first receives it; here it continues through Isaac.
THE ROOT
מוֹעֵד
moʿed
GROWS FROM
יעד
y-ʿ-d
To appoint or designate; מוֹעֵד means an appointed time or meeting.
The verse names more than a date: it uses a word for an appointed time, one that can also describe a meeting. The birth is set within a specific appointment, not left as an undefined possibility.
ALSO GROWS
yaʿad: to appoint, designate
יָעַד
This verb shows the appointed time as something marked out.
moʿadim: appointed times, appointed gatherings
מוֹעֲדִים
The plural form carries the same sense of time set aside for a meeting or event.
יִצְחָק
Yitzḥaq
GROWS FROM
צחק
ṣ-ḥ-q
To laugh.
Isaac’s name grows from the Hebrew word for laughter. The promise is carried in a name that keeps laughter inside the future Sarah will bear.
ALSO GROWS
vattitsḥaq: and she laughed
וַתִּצְחַק
Sarah’s laugh in Genesis 18:12 echoes the root carried in Isaac’s name.
tseḥoq: laughter
צְחוֹק
The noun makes explicit the sound and response held in the child’s name.
אָקִים
ʾaqim
GROWS FROM
קום
q-w-m
To rise or stand; in a causative form, to raise or establish.
“make stand” in this verse is ʾaqim. The verb translated “establish” comes from a root of rising and standing. The covenant is made to stand with Isaac, continuing through the life named in the verse.
ALSO GROWS
qam: he rose, stood
קָם
The basic form gives “establish” its sense of standing firm.
heqim: he raised, set up, established
הֵקִים
This causative form shows how the root extends from standing to making something stand.
THE PATTERN
Fulfillment has an appointed time; what is promised takes form when that time arrives.
For Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the appointed time of which God had spoken to him.For the vision is yet for the appointed time, and at the end it will breathe and not lie. Though it lingers, wait for it. Because it will surely come, it will not stay behind.But when the time was filled, God sent out his Son, come from a woman, come under the instruction.THE THREAD
Is any word too hard for the LORD? At the appointed time I will turn back to you, at this season of life, and Sarah will have a son.“At the time appointed” repeats the Hebrew word מוֹעֵד (moʿed), the appointed time named in Genesis 17:21. This verse makes the appointment explicit and ties it directly to Sarah bearing a son.
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