What Does Genesis 22:10 Mean?
And Abraham stretched out his hand, and took the knife to slaughter 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 Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son.THE KEY
The hand Abraham “stretched forth” is the hand he “sent out”, the verse catches violence at the instant it becomes bodily action.
THE MEANING
You are brought to the moment intention enters the body: Abraham sends out his hand and takes the knife to slaughter his son. The knife is in his grasp, and the intended killing is immediate.
THE ROOT
וַיִּשְׁלַח
vayishlach
GROWS FROM
שלח
Send out; the root carries the sense of sending or extending something outward, and can also mean release.
“stretched out his hand” in this verse is vayishlach. English “stretched forth” smooths away the verb’s wider field: Abraham sends his hand outward. The root makes the reaching deliberate and physical; here it is the movement that puts the violence in motion.
ALSO GROWS
shaliach: Messenger or envoy; one who is sent.
שָׁלִיחַ
This branch preserves the root’s sense of sending something or someone out, giving the verb a wider reach than the English phrase “stretched forth.”
shilluach: Sending away or dismissal.
שִׁלּוּחַ
It shows that sending can carry the sense of release. That meaning belongs to the root’s range, even as Abraham’s hand here moves toward his son with a knife.
מַאֲכֶלֶת
ma'akhelet
GROWS FROM
אכל
Eat or consume.
The Hebrew name for the knife belongs to the אכל (akal, eat) word-family, linking the implement with eating and food. Beside the explicit verb “slay,” that overlap keeps the scene’s bodily violence concrete: this is the blade Abraham takes to kill his son.
ALSO GROWS
akal: Eat or consume.
אָכַל
This is the verb at the root of the knife’s word-family, tying its name to the act of eating.
ma'akhal: Food or something eaten.
מַאֲכָל
This branch shows the same root in the language of food, sharpening the contrast with the knife’s stated purpose here: slaughter.
THE PATTERN
A hand sent outward is where inward intent becomes action, and that action can be restrained or carried through.
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."And he said to his men, The LORD forbid that I should do this thing to my lord, the LORD's anointed one, to stretch out my hand against him, for he is the anointed one of the LORD.And look, one of those with Jesus stretched out his hand, drew his sword, and struck a servant of the high priest, and cut off his ear.THE THREAD
And he said to his men, The LORD forbid that I should do this thing to my lord, the LORD's anointed one, to stretch out my hand against him, for he is the anointed one of the LORD.The phrase “to stretch forth mine hand” uses the same שלח (shalach, send out) root as Abraham’s hand. David’s refusal makes the shared wording a hinge: the hand that reaches toward violence can also be withheld.
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