What Does Genesis 17:22 Mean?
And he ran out of speaking with him, and God went up from Abraham.
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 he left off talking with him, and God went up from Abraham.THE KEY
The Hebrew frames God’s ascent as the completion of the conversation: speech reaches its end, and the encounter closes with movement upward.
THE MEANING
The conversation reaches its completion, and God goes up from Abraham. The verse holds a finished exchange and a real departure together; the ending does not erase the encounter that came before it.
THE ROOT
וַיְכַל
wayekhal
GROWS FROM
כלה
to complete, bring to an end
“ran out of” in this verse is wayekhal. The word translated “left off” carries the sense of finishing or bringing something to completion. The conversation ends as a completed exchange, and the verse’s next movement is God’s ascent.
ALSO GROWS
killah: completed, finished
כִּלָּה
This form makes the sense of completion explicit: the speech reaches its end.
nikhlah: be finished or consumed
נִכְלָה
The same root can describe something reaching its end, giving the stopping of speech a sense of closure.
וַיַּעַל
wayyaʿal
GROWS FROM
עלה
to go up, rise, ascend
“went up” in this verse is wayyaʿal. The verse uses a verb of ascent for God’s departure from Abraham. The same root appears in words for ascent and for an offering that rises, linking the closing movement to the language of going upward.
ALSO GROWS
aliyah: ascent, going up
עֲלִיָּה
This noun preserves the same upward movement expressed by “went up.”
olah: burnt offering, an offering that rises
עֹלָה
Its name comes from the language of ascending, echoing the verse’s final movement.
לְדַבֵּר
ledabber
GROWS FROM
דבר
to speak; word or matter
“speaking” in this verse is ledabber. The Hebrew for “talking” shares its root with davar, meaning “word” or “matter.” The encounter is centered on spoken words, and the verse marks their completion before God ascends.
ALSO GROWS
davar: word, matter, thing
דָּבָר
The shared root links the conversation to the words and matters being spoken.
dibber: spoke, spoke with
דִּבֵּר
This verb form makes the speech itself visible in the line that the root calls complete.
THE PATTERN
Scripture marks encounters by pairing completed speech with a movement of departure or ascent.
And God went up from him in the place where he spoke with him.When he had said these things, while they watched, he was taken up, and a cloud took him up out of their sight.And the LORD went on his way, as soon as his speaking with Abraham had finished, and Abraham turned back to his place.THE THREAD
And God went up from him in the place where he spoke with him.This verse repeats the Hebrew ascent verb וַיַּעַל (wayyaʿal) and the same sequence: God speaks with someone, then goes up from him. The parallel makes the ascent in Genesis 17 part of the text’s recurring way of marking an encounter’s close.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us