What Does Genesis 19:31 Mean?
And the firstborn said to the younger, Our father is old, and there is no man in the earth to go in to us in the way of all the earth.
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 the firstborn said unto the younger, Our father is old, and there is not a man in the earth to come in unto us after the manner of all the earth:THE KEY
They turn their limited horizon into a verdict about the whole earth.
THE MEANING
Their words say that their father is old and that no man remains anywhere for sexual union. They present sexual access to their father as the only remaining route within the human pattern they know.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The false certainty is that what they cannot see from where they are proves that no man exists anywhere.
THE ROOT
דֶּרֶךְ
derekh
GROWS FROM
דרך
To tread or step; a trodden course.
The phrase rendered “after the manner of all the earth” uses derekh, “way” or “course”: a human custom is pictured as a path people tread. That shared path becomes their frame for sexual union, even as they claim that every other possibility has vanished.
ALSO GROWS
dārakh: To tread, step, or march.
דָּרַךְ
The verb makes the “way” a track beneath the feet, something movement follows.
derekh: Way, road, course, or manner.
דֶּרֶךְ
In כְּדֶרֶךְ (k’derekh), “according to the way,” the verse presents a human custom as a shared course.
THE PATTERN
A limited vantage can make apparent absence sound like universal absence.
And he said, "I have burned hot for the LORD God of hosts, for the children of Israel have let go of your covenant, torn down your altars, and struck down your prophets with the sword; and I, even I alone, am left, and they seek my living soul to take it."And he answered, Do not fear, for those with us are more than those with them.But what does the answer of God say to him? I have left behind for myself seven thousand men, who have not bent the knee to Baal.THE THREAD
I am going the way of all the earth. Take firm hold of yourself, therefore, and become a man.This verse repeats the Hebrew phrase “the way of all the earth,” using derekh (דֶּרֶךְ), “way” or “course.” Here the phrase names the common path of death, extending the idea of a way shared by all beyond the human custom the daughters invoke.
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