What Does Genesis 21:27 Mean?
And Abraham took sheep and oxen and gave them to Abimelech, and the two of them cut a covenant.
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 Abraham took sheep and oxen, and gave them unto Abimelech; and both of them made a covenant.THE KEY
The Hebrew pictures making this covenant as “cutting” it: the bond takes a defined, binding shape alongside the gift.
THE MEANING
Avraham (אַבְרָהָם, Avraham, “father of a multitude”) and Avimelekh (אֲבִימֶלֶךְ, Avimelekh, “my father is king”) stand in a mutual bond given visible form through Abraham’s gift. The Hebrew verb behind “made” means “cut,” so covenant carries the sense of a bond formally marked and binding. The verse presents what passes between them as part of the relationship itself.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A covenant is only an inward intention, with no visible form between the people who enter it.
THE ROOT
וַיִּכְרְתוּ
wayyikhrĕtû
GROWS FROM
כרת
k-r-t
Cut, cut off, sever.
The verb וַיִּכְרְתוּ (wayyikhrĕtû, “they cut”) uses כרת (karat, “cut”) in the Hebrew phrase כָּרַת בְּרִית (karat berit, “cut a covenant”). The English “made” and Hebrew “cut” meet here: the mutual bond takes a defined shape alongside Abraham’s gift of animals.
ALSO GROWS
keritut: Cutting off; a bill of divorce.
כְּרִיתוּת
This derivative carries the root’s sense of separation into a formal document, showing how כרת marks the boundaries of a relationship.
nikhrat: Be cut off or severed.
נִכְרַת
This form shows the root can describe separation; in the verse’s covenant idiom, the same root gives the bond a binding edge.
THE PATTERN
Covenant takes visible form through a concrete act or sign shared between its parties.
This is my covenant, which you shall guard, between me and you and your seed after you; every male among you shall be cut.And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant, which the LORD has cut with you concerning all these words.For this is my blood of the new covenant, which is poured out for many, for the release of shortcomings.THE THREAD
On that day the LORD cut a covenant with Abram, saying, To your seed I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates.Genesis 15:18 uses the same Hebrew verb כרת (karat, “cut”) for making a covenant. The shared root lets this verse’s gift and covenant sit within a wider image of relationship given a binding mark.
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