What Does Genesis 20:6 Mean?
And God said to him in a dream, Yes, I perceive that you did this with an unbroken heart. I also held you back from missing the mark against me, and therefore I did not let you touch her.
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 God said unto him in a dream, Yea, I know that thou didst this in the integrity of thy heart; for I also withheld thee from sinning against me: therefore suffered I thee not to touch her.THE KEY
Integrity does not make restraint unnecessary: God can stop the touch before it becomes a transgression.
THE MEANING
The verse holds your integrity of heart and your capacity to cross a boundary in one frame. Restraint stands between you and the act, stopping contact before it becomes a transgression.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that inner integrity makes boundary-crossing impossible: the verse pairs a whole heart with restraint that stops the act.
THE ROOT
וָאֶחְשֹׂךְ
va'echsok
GROWS FROM
חָשַׂךְ
ḥāśak
To hold back, withhold, or spare.
“held you back” in this verse is va'echsok. Here God’s holding back reaches the point before contact: the boundary itself prevents the act from happening. The same root appears when the psalmist asks to be kept back from presumptuous sins.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāśakhtā: You withheld.
חָשַׂכְתָּ
The same verb describes Abraham not withholding his son, placing the word beside a command that stops his hand.
ḥăśōḵ: Keep back; restrain.
חֲשֹׂךְ
The psalmist uses this form to ask for restraint from presumptuous sins, echoing the blocked act here.
מֵחֲטוֹא
mechato
GROWS FROM
חָטָא
ḥāṭāʾ
To miss, miss the mark, or fail to reach.
“missing the mark against me” in this verse is mechato. The word translated “sinning” carries the sense of missing, and the verse names the one missed against: “me.” The possible wrong is relational, and here it is stopped before it becomes contact.
ALSO GROWS
ḥēṭ: A miss, offense, or sin.
חֵטְא
This noun keeps the sense of a missed mark inside the verse’s relational phrase, “against me.”
ḥaṭṭāʾt: Sin, guilt, or an offering associated with the missing.
חַטָּאת
This branch shows the root also names what addresses the breach created by a miss.
בְּתָם
betom
GROWS FROM
תָּמַם
tāmam
To be complete, whole, or brought to completion.
The word translated “integrity” names wholeness of heart, and the verse places that wholeness beside the need for restraint. It does not make every possible act harmless.
ALSO GROWS
tāmîm: Whole, complete, sound; sometimes rendered blameless.
תָּמִים
This branch makes integrity a quality of wholeness rather than proof that no boundary could be crossed.
tām: Whole, blameless, or straightforward.
תָּם
This related form reinforces the sense of an undivided heart present in the verse.
THE PATTERN
God’s restraint can stop a transgression before a hand reaches its target.
Also hold back your servant from the seething ones; let them not rule over me. Then I will be unbroken, and I will be cleansed from great rebellion.He holds back his living soul from the pit, and his life from crossing over by the dart.No test has seized you except what is common to humankind. God is steady, and he will not let you be tested beyond what you are able to carry, but with the test he will also make the way out, so that you can carry it.THE THREAD
And he said, "Do not stretch out your hand against the young man, and do nothing to him, for now I perceive that you are in awe of God, since you have not held back your son, your only son, from me."The same root חָשַׂךְ appears in “thou hast not withheld thy son.” Here God withholds Abimelech from touching Sarah; Genesis 22:12 places that same word beside “Lay not thine hand upon the lad.” The shared root gathers withholding and a hand stopped at the threshold of action.
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