What Does Genesis 29:1 Mean?
Then Jacob lifted his feet and walked into the land of the people of the east.
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
Then Jacob went on his journey, and came into the land of the people of the east.THE KEY
The journey begins when Jacob “lifts” his feet: Hebrew uses the same verb for lifting, carrying, and bearing.
THE MEANING
The next direction becomes real as Jacob’s feet are lifted and carried toward the land of the people of the east. The verse makes the hinge a bodily movement: he sets out, step by step.
THE ROOT
נשא
nasa
GROWS FROM
נשא
Lift, carry, or bear.
“lifted his feet and walked” in this verse is nasa. The Hebrew describes Jacob as lifting his feet, so the English phrase “went on his journey” carries a more bodily image beneath it. The same root can describe lifting the eyes or bearing crookedness; English separates motion, burden-bearing, and forgiveness into different concepts.
ALSO GROWS
nasa ʿeinayim: Raise one’s eyes to look.
נָשָׂא עֵינַיִם
The same verb describes Abram lifting his eyes in Genesis 13:14, linking Jacob’s departure with the act of looking toward what lies ahead.
nasa ʿavon: Bear or forgive wrongdoing; עָוֹן (ʿavon) means crookedness or guilt.
נָשָׂא עָוֹן
The verb’s range extends from lifting the body to bearing wrongdoing, keeping the image of carrying present even where English uses “forgive.”
יַעֲקֹב
Yaʿaqov
GROWS FROM
עקב
Heel; to follow at the heel or supplant.
“Jacob” in this verse is Yaʿaqov. The Genesis naming story links Yaʿaqov to עָקֵב (ʿaqev), “heel.” Here the heel-linked name appears beside the image of lifted feet, turning that name echo into a picture of setting out.
ALSO GROWS
ʿaqev: The back part of the foot.
עָקֵב
Genesis 25:26 connects Jacob’s name with his hand holding Esau’s heel; this verse returns to the feet as he goes onward.
ʿaqav: Follow at someone’s heel or overtake.
עָקַב
This related verb carries the heel image into following and overtaking, giving Jacob’s name a sense of movement close behind.
THE PATTERN
A change of direction enters the body as rising, lifting, and going.
Rise, walk through the land in its length and in its breadth, for I will give it to you.I will rise and go to my father, and I will say to him, "Father, I have missed the mark against the heavens and before your face,THE THREAD
And the LORD said to Abram, after Lot had parted from him, Lift up now your eyes, and look from the place where you are, northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward.The Hebrew verb behind Jacob’s movement also describes Abram lifting his eyes. The same root joins feet moving onward with eyes turning toward the horizon.
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