What Does Genesis 30:28 Mean?
And he said, Name me your wages, and I will give it.
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 he said, Appoint me thy wages, and I will give it.THE KEY
The exchange begins when the wage is marked out and named, before it is given.
THE MEANING
Your labor enters a visible exchange: its compensation can be named, and the one asking for your work promises to give what is named. The verse brings the terms into the open instead of leaving the measure of the exchange unspoken.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that compensation must remain vague until someone else decides it is undone here: the wage is named as part of the arrangement.
THE ROOT
נָקְבָה
nāqĕḇāh
GROWS FROM
נ־ק־ב
To mark or designate; in other uses, to pierce or bore.
“Name” in this verse is nāqĕḇāh. Here the verb asks Jacob to mark out the wages precisely. The exchange begins by naming its measure, rather than leaving the terms unspoken.
ALSO GROWS
nāqab: To designate or name; also to pierce or bore.
נָקַב
The sense of designating gives “appoint” the force of making the terms definite.
nāqūḇ: Specified, named.
נָקוּב
This related form makes clear that what is marked out can become a stated term.
שְׂכָרְךָ
śĕḵārḵā
GROWS FROM
ש־כ־ר
Hire, compensation, wages or reward.
“wages” in this verse is śĕḵārḵā. The root ties the payment to the act of hiring: compensation is the named return for service. The verse holds worker and wage within one exchange.
ALSO GROWS
śāḵār: Wages, hire or reward.
שָׂכָר
This is the noun used for the compensation Jacob is asked to specify.
śāḵîr: A hired person or hireling.
שָׂכִיר
The same root names the worker whose labor is hired as well as the compensation for it.
THE PATTERN
Labor is answered through compensation that is made explicit and then given.
And Laban said to Jacob, Because you are my brother, should you therefore serve me for nothing? Tell me, what will your wages be?On his day you give him his wage, and the sun does not go down upon it, for he is bowed down and carries his living soul toward it. Lest he call out against you to the LORD, and it be missing in you.And remain in that same house, eating and drinking what they give, for the worker is worthy of his pay. Do not step from house to house.THE THREAD
On his day you give him his wage, and the sun does not go down upon it, for he is bowed down and carries his living soul toward it. Lest he call out against you to the LORD, and it be missing in you.The word translated “hire” grows from the same שכר (ś-k-r) root as “wages” here. This verse opens the exchange further by showing that the named wage is not only a promise; its giving has a time and a human consequence.
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