What Does Genesis 3:21 Mean?
And the LORD God made tunics of skin for Adam and for his wife, and clothed them.
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
Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them.THE KEY
God’s answer to human exposure is a covering God makes and personally places on the body.
THE MEANING
You are not left to produce every covering from your own effort: this verse shows God making a covering and placing it on the exposed human. Its answer reaches the body itself, so care appears as something tangible and received.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that exposure can only be managed by what you make for yourself.
THE ROOT
וַיַּלְבִּשֵׁם
wayyalbishem
GROWS FROM
לבש
לָבַשׁ (labash) means to wear; in the causative form used here, to clothe someone.
“clothed” in this verse is wayyalbishem. The Hebrew makes God the actor who puts the covering on them, not merely the maker of the garments. Clothing and the act of clothing share the root לבש (labash, to wear or clothe), so the provision is something placed on an embodied person.
ALSO GROWS
levush: Garment; clothing
לְבוּשׁ
This noun from the same root family makes the garment and the act of putting it on part of one word-family.
malbush: Garment; apparel
מַלְבּוּשׁ
The same root names the covering itself, keeping the verse’s making and clothing within one linguistic family.
אָדָם
adam
GROWS FROM
אדם
אָדָם (adam) is the ground-related human; in Genesis, the name echoes אֲדָמָה (adamah, ground or soil).
“Adam” in this verse is adam. The name keeps the recipient grounded and embodied: this is a human body receiving an actual covering. The care in the verse is material, not only an idea about shame.
ALSO GROWS
adam: Human; ground-being
אָדָם
Adam is the one clothed in the verse, keeping the focus on the person’s embodied vulnerability.
adamah: Ground; soil
אֲדָמָה
Genesis links the human to the ground, illuminating why the covering here reaches the body itself.
THE PATTERN
Scripture presents covering for exposed life as something given, extending from the body to guilt and restored belonging.
And the eyes of them both were opened, and they perceived that they were bare, and they sewed fig leaves together, and made for themselves waistcloths.A Psalm of David, Maschil. Flourishing is the one whose rebellion is released, whose shortcomings are covered.But the father said to his servants, "Quickly, bring out the first robe and put it on him, and give a ring into his hand and sandals onto his feet."THE THREAD
I will exult greatly in the LORD; my living soul shall leap in my God; for he has clothed me in garments of deliverance, he has wrapped me in the robe of alignment, as a bridegroom dons a headdress, and as a bride binds on her jewels.Isaiah uses the same root לבש (labash, to clothe) when God clothes the speaker in garments of deliverance and a robe of alignment. Genesis gives that clothing an embodied scene; Isaiah carries the same act into deliverance and alignment, showing the covering as a gift placed on exposed life.
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