What Does Genesis 21:11 Mean?
And the word was very bad in Abraham's eyes because of his son.
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 thing was very grievous in Abraham’s sight because of his son.THE KEY
The matter is “bad” in Abraham’s sight because it concerns his son, making grief part of the reality he faces.
THE MEANING
When a child’s future is caught in a painful matter, this verse names the grief as real and visible. Love does not make the matter feel light; it makes the cost register.
THE ROOT
וַיֵּרַע
wayyēraʿ
GROWS FROM
רָעַע
rāʿaʿ
To be bad or displeasing.
The word translated “grievous” comes from the root for “bad” or “evil”: the matter itself is bad in Abraham’s sight, not merely a passing mood. Because the verse ties that judgment to his son, it shows grief gathering around what the matter means to him.
ALSO GROWS
raʿ: Bad, evil.
רַע
This adjective shares the root that describes how the matter appears to Abraham.
hērēaʿ: To do harm or act wickedly.
הֵרֵעַ
This verbal form shows how the root can describe something experienced as harmful or bad.
הַדָּבָר
ha-dābār
GROWS FROM
דבר
d-b-r
To speak or utter; the related noun can mean word, matter, or thing.
English “thing” makes the painful situation sound like a bare object, while Hebrew dābār can also mean “word” or “matter.” The same root carries speech and what is being spoken about, placing the painful matter at the center of what Abraham faces.
ALSO GROWS
dibber: Spoke, uttered.
דִּבֵּר
The verb shows the root’s connection to speech.
dābār: A word, matter, or thing.
דָּבָר
This is the noun used here; it names the situation that feels grievous to Abraham.
THE PATTERN
A parent’s bond makes a child’s threatened loss or separation register as real grief.
And all his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted, and he said, For I will go down to the grave, to my son, mourning. So his father wept for him.In Ramah a voice was heard, wailing, and weeping, and great mourning; Rachel weeping for her children, and she would not be comforted, because they are not.THE THREAD
And God said to Abraham, Do not let it be bad in your eyes because of the boy, and because of your servant woman. In all that Sarah says to you, hear and respond to her voice, for in Isaac your seed shall be called.The next verse repeats the same root behind “grievous” in the phrase “Let it not be grievous in thy sight.” It opens Abraham’s pain into a direct response: the grief is named before the next instruction appears.
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