What Does Genesis 26:14 Mean?
For he had possession of flocks, and possession of herds, and a great household of servants, and the Philistines burned with envy against him.
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
For he had possession of flocks, and possession of herds, and great store of servants: and the Philistines envied him.THE KEY
The Hebrew word for envy belongs to the same word-family as zeal, giving the reaction to Isaac’s abundance a charged intensity.
THE MEANING
Visible increase can coexist with resentment; abundance does not guarantee welcome. The envy belongs to the people watching, while the abundance remains real.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that visible success naturally earns goodwill is undone here: increase can draw envy as well as recognition.
THE ROOT
וַיְקַנְאוּ
wayqannəʾû
GROWS FROM
קנא
q-n-ʾ
To be jealous or zealous.
“burned with envy” in this verse is wayqannəʾû. The root’s word-family holds jealousy and zeal together, naming an intense response rather than passive dislike. Here that response arises around Isaac’s visible increase, placing abundance and envy in the same scene.
ALSO GROWS
qin’ah: Jealousy or zeal.
קִנְאָה
This noun shows that the root can name either intense envy or intense zeal.
qannā’: Jealous or zealous.
קַנָּא
This related form carries the same intensity as a quality, as in the description of God as jealous.
מִקְנֵה
miqneh
GROWS FROM
קנה
q-n-h
To acquire, buy, or gain possession.
The Hebrew word translated “possession” here refers to livestock or stock: the holdings are concrete herds, not an abstract status. Its root ties those herds to acquiring, making the increase visible in what Isaac owns.
ALSO GROWS
qānāh: To acquire or buy.
קָנָה
The verb makes the root sense of gaining or owning explicit.
qinyan: Acquisition or property.
קִנְיָן
This related noun keeps the sense of acquired holdings close to the word for Isaac’s livestock.
THE PATTERN
When another person’s visible flourishing becomes an object of comparison, envy can turn it into rivalry and disorder.
And his brothers envied him, but his father guarded the word.For I burn with envy at the boasting ones when I see the wholeness of the wicked.For where boiling and strife are, there is no standing still and every base deed.THE THREAD
And his brothers envied him, but his father guarded the word.Genesis 37:11 uses קנא (qana, to be jealous or zealous) for the brothers’ envy. The same root gathers around Joseph’s distinction, carrying the pattern from visible abundance into family rivalry.
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