What Does Genesis 21:6 Mean?
And Sarah said, God has made me laugh, and all who hear will laugh with me.
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 Sarah said, God hath made me to laugh, so that all that hear will laugh with me.THE KEY
Sarah’s laughter and her son’s name grow from the same Hebrew root, turning her private astonishment into something everyone can share.
THE MEANING
What once seems impossible can become the very thing that opens laughter between you and the people around you. Sarah’s joy moves from within her into the open, where everyone who hears can share it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Laughter at what seems impossible does not have to remain disbelief; it can become joy shared with others.
THE ROOT
צְחֹק
tzĕḥōq
GROWS FROM
צחק
to laugh
“laugh” in this verse is tzĕḥōq. English gives you a word for laughter and a separate name, but Hebrew keeps both in צחק: Sarah’s laughter and Yitzchak’s name grow from the same root. Her laughter becomes more than a reaction; it is carried in her son’s name and opens into the laughter of everyone who hears.
ALSO GROWS
Yitzchak: Isaac; the name means “he laughs” or “he will laugh.”
יִצְחָק
The child’s name carries Sarah’s laughter forward, linking the birth to the joy she voices here.
tsechoq: laughter
צְחֹק
This noun names the laughter God makes for Sarah, the same laughter that becomes shared in the next phrase.
THE PATTERN
Laughter can mark both what first seems impossible and the joy that follows when the impossible gives way.
And Sarah laughed in her inward parts, saying, After I am worn out, shall I have pleasure, and my lord is old?Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with a ringing cry. Then they said among the nations, The LORD has grown great in doing with these.Flourishing are the hungering now, for you will be filled. Flourishing are the weeping now, for you will laugh.THE THREAD
And Sarah laughed in her inward parts, saying, After I am worn out, shall I have pleasure, and my lord is old?Sarah’s laughter here echoes the same root, צחק (tzachaq, to laugh), when she laughs within herself. The root’s movement from inward laughter to laughter shared with others lets you hear how her private response opens outward.
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