What Does Genesis 25:21 Mean?
And Isaac pleaded with the LORD for his wife, because she was barren, and the LORD was moved by him, and Rebekah his wife conceived.
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 Isaac intreated the LORD for his wife, because she was barren: and the LORD was intreated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived.THE KEY
The same Hebrew root names both Isaac’s pleading and the LORD’s being entreated, joining the petition and its answer in one verbal seed.
THE MEANING
This verse speaks to longing that seems closed: Isaac pleads, the LORD answers, and Rebekah conceives. Its movement is from barrenness toward life, with the change following the LORD’s response.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that this barrenness has the final word is undone here: the verse ends with Rebekah conceiving.
THE ROOT
וַיֶּעְתַּר
wayyeʿtar
GROWS FROM
ע־ת־ר
ʿ-t-r
Entreat, make supplication; in a passive form, be entreated.
“pleaded” in this verse is wayyeʿtar. The verb shifts from Isaac pleading to the LORD being entreated, but both forms keep the root עתר. The petition and its reception share one verbal seed.
ALSO GROWS
wayyeʿtar: He pleaded or made supplication.
וַיֶּעְתַּר
This is Isaac’s action in the verse: he brings his longing before the LORD.
wayyēʿāṯēr: He was entreated; the plea was received.
וַיֵּעָתֵר
This is the LORD’s response in the verse, formed from the same root as Isaac’s plea.
עֲקָרָה
ʿăqārāh
GROWS FROM
ע־ק־ר
ʿ-q-r
Uproot; the related form also means barren.
The Hebrew word for a barren woman shares its root with uprooting. That root adds the image of life without fruit, which makes the verse’s turn to conception especially vivid.
ALSO GROWS
ʿāqar: To uproot or pull up.
עָקַר
This root sense sits beneath the word for barrenness and gives it an image of what has been uprooted.
ʿăqārāh: A barren woman.
עֲקָרָה
This is the form used for Rebekah; the verse then moves from this condition to conception.
יִצְחָק
Yitzḥaq
GROWS FROM
צ־ח־ק
ṣ-ḥ-q
Laugh.
Isaac’s Hebrew name carries the root for laughter. The man pleading here bears laughter in his name while facing an unfulfilled longing.
ALSO GROWS
ṣāḥaq: To laugh.
צָחַק
This verb is the root from which Isaac’s name is formed.
ṣeḥōq: Laughter.
צְחוֹק
This noun makes the meaning carried in Isaac’s name visible as a word in its own right.
THE PATTERN
A plea is shown as movement toward hearing and response, rather than as an isolated utterance.
I seek the LORD, and he answers me, and snatches me out of every place of dread.Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.In the days of his flesh, he brought near prayers and clinging pleas, with a strong outcry and tears, to the one able to deliver him out of death, and he was heard because of his awe.THE THREAD
And he prayed to him, and God was moved by him, and heard and responded to his plea, and turned him back to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD himself is God.This verse repeats the עתר root in the phrase “he was intreated,” linking the plea’s reception to the same root found in Genesis 25:21. In both verses, the petitioner’s appeal and the LORD’s response are marked by that shared verbal seed.
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