What Does Genesis 21:26 Mean?
And Abimelech said, I did not know who had done this word. You did not tell me, and I did not hear of it until today.
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 Abimelech said, I wot not who hath done this thing: neither didst thou tell me, neither yet heard I of it, but to day.THE KEY
Not knowing, not being told, and not hearing are three distinct paths into awareness, and an event can be real before it reaches you.
THE MEANING
A thing can happen without you knowing it: what is done, what you are told, and what reaches your hearing are distinct paths into awareness. “To day” marks the moment the gap closes; not knowing and concealing are not the same state.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse dissolves the assumption that an event’s existence means you already know of it, or that not knowing it proves you concealed it.
THE ROOT
יָדַעְתִּי
yadaʿti
GROWS FROM
ידע
To know, recognize, or become acquainted with.
“did not know” in this verse is yadaʿti. Here “know” names awareness gained through contact or acquaintance, not simply a fact existing somewhere. The verse sets that knowing beside being told and hearing: an event can be present in the world before it enters your awareness.
ALSO GROWS
deʿah: knowledge, understanding
דֵּעָה
This noun from the same root names what becomes present to awareness.
yodeaʿ: one who knows
יוֹדֵעַ
This participle describes a person in the state of knowing, highlighting the difference between a known event and one that has not yet reached you.
שָׁמַעְתִּי
shamaʿti
GROWS FROM
שמע
To hear, listen, and, where response is implied, heed.
“hear” in this verse is shamaʿti. The English “heard” can sound like bare sound, but שָׁמַע carries hearing and listening, and can include heeding. Here the speaker dates when the report reaches his hearing, a distinct route by which the event enters awareness.
ALSO GROWS
shemaʿ: hear and respond
שְׁמַע
This familiar imperative shows how hearing can open into a response.
shemuʿah: report, news
שְׁמוּעָה
This branch names what is heard as communicated news, the kind of message that can bring an event into awareness.
הַדָּבָר
hadavar
GROWS FROM
דבר
To speak; as a noun, a word, matter, or affair.
English “thing” can make this seem like an object alone, while דָּבָר can name both a matter and a word. The shared root connects what was done to what can be spoken, reported, and then known.
ALSO GROWS
dibber: he spoke
דִּבֵּר
This verb from the same root makes the link between an event and the words that can bring it to someone’s attention.
devarim: words, matters
דְּבָרִים
The plural holds speech and matters together, echoing the verse’s movement from what happened to what is communicated.
THE PATTERN
A matter becomes shared knowledge through disclosure and hearing; neither is identical to its having happened.
And the LORD said, Shall I cover from Abraham what I am making?The one who returns a word before he hears it, folly and shame are his.I hold many things concerning you to speak and to judge; but the one who sent me is true, and what I heard from him, these things I speak into the world.THE THREAD
Hear and respond, O Israel. The LORD our God is one LORD.Both verses use שמע (shamaʿ, hear): in Genesis the speaker says the matter has not yet reached his hearing; here hearing opens the address. The shared root makes the channel visible: an event is not known just because it happened; it must be received.
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