What Does Genesis 27:6 Mean?
And Rebekah spoke to Jacob her son, saying, Look, I heard your father speak to Esau your brother, saying,
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 Rebekah spake unto Jacob her son, saying, Behold, I heard thy father speak unto Esau thy brother, saying,THE KEY
The Hebrew word translated “heard” here is the same word Rebekah uses for “obey” two verses later: listening is already turning toward action.
THE MEANING
A word reaches you through someone else’s hearing and retelling, and it can become a voice you answer. The Hebrew holds hearing and heeding within one root, showing how what enters the ear can move toward a decision.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This unsettles the assumption that hearing leaves you untouched: what you receive can already be becoming a direction carried forward.
THE ROOT
שָׁמַעְתִּי
shamaʿti
GROWS FROM
שמע
To hear, listen, or attend.
The same root behind “heard” here appears as “obey” in Genesis 27:8. Hebrew holds hearing and response together: what Rebekah receives is already moving toward what Jacob will be asked to do.
ALSO GROWS
shemaʿ: Hear, listen; when a directive is implied, hear and respond.
שְׁמַע
This is the form translated “obey” in Genesis 27:8, joining Rebekah’s hearing to the response she asks of Jacob.
shemuʿah: A report, news, or something heard.
שְׁמוּעָה
The report Rebekah carries is made of heard words passed from one speaker to another.
מְדַבֵּר
medabber
GROWS FROM
דבר
To speak or declare; the related noun can mean a word, matter, or thing.
“speak” in this verse is medabber. English can make speech sound like sound alone, but this root also names a word and a matter. Rebekah is carrying speech that is already becoming a concrete matter between people.
ALSO GROWS
davar: Word, matter, or thing.
דָּבָר
The same root links spoken words with the matter they carry into a person’s life.
dibber: Spoke or uttered.
דִּבֵּר
This is another form of the root for the speaking Rebekah says she heard.
יַעֲקֹב
Yaʿaqov
GROWS FROM
עקב
Heel; to follow at the heel, with the story also connecting the name to supplanting.
The story ties Jacob’s name to a hand at a heel and later to supplanting. Here he is named before he acts, at the moment another voice is about to direct him.
ALSO GROWS
ʿaqev: Heel.
עָקֵב
The name is linked to Jacob’s hand holding Esau’s heel at birth, giving it a bodily image.
ʿaqav: To take by the heel or supplant.
עָקַב
Esau later connects Jacob’s name with supplanting, echoing the action toward which this family scene moves.
THE PATTERN
What is heard can pass through a person and become the next voice someone answers.
And the LORD came, and stood, and called as at other times, Samuel, Samuel. Then Samuel answered, Speak, for your servant hears and responds.The one who returns a word before he hears it, folly and shame are his.So then trust comes out of hearing, and hearing comes through the word of God.THE THREAD
Now then, my son, hear and respond to my voice, just as I command you.The Hebrew root שׁמע (shamaʿ, hear or listen) appears in this verse as “heard” and in Genesis 27:8 as “obey.” The words Rebekah reports have already become the voice she asks Jacob to answer.
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