What Does Genesis 31:14 Mean?
Rachel and Leah answered and said to him, Is there still any portion or inheritance for us in our father's house?
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 Rachel and Leah answered and said unto him, Is there yet any portion or inheritance for us in our father’s house?THE KEY
Rachel and Leah ask not whether they are daughters of the house, but whether the house still counts them as heirs.
THE MEANING
This verse gives voice to the moment you ask whether the household you came from still holds a place and a future for you. “Portion” asks what is assigned to you; “inheritance” asks what carries forward from the house. Together, the words make belonging concrete: is anything here truly yours?
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Being called part of a family does not guarantee a share in that family’s future.
THE ROOT
נַחֲלָה
nachalah
GROWS FROM
נחל
To inherit, possess, or take possession.
“inheritance” in this verse is nachalah. This root joins the act of inheriting to the possession received. Beside “portion,” it makes the question reach beyond a future asset: does their father’s household still recognize any share as theirs?
ALSO GROWS
nāḥal: To inherit or take possession.
נָחַל
The verb shows inheritance as an act of receiving and holding something as one’s own.
naḥălāh: An inheritance or allotted possession.
נַחֲלָה
The noun names the share whose place in the household Rachel and Leah question.
naḥălat: “Inheritance of,” the same noun joined to what it belongs to.
נַחֲלַת
The construct form makes the relationship explicit: an inheritance is attached to someone or something.
חֵלֶק
ḥēleq
GROWS FROM
חלק
To divide or apportion.
The root ties a portion to the act of setting out shares. Alongside inheritance, the verse asks both whether anything is assigned to them and whether they retain a claim to it.
ALSO GROWS
ḥālaq: To divide or apportion.
חָלַק
The verb reveals the action hidden inside a “portion”: a share is set out from a whole.
ḥēleq: A share or allotted portion.
חֵלֶק
This is the share Rachel and Leah ask whether they still have.
ḥelqāh: A plot or parcel of land.
חֶלְקָה
The related word applies the same idea of an apportioned share to a piece of land.
THE PATTERN
A share reveals where someone belongs, and an inheritance carries that belonging forward.
For the LORD's portion is his people; Jacob is the measuring cord of his inheritance.The LORD is the portion of my share and of my cup; you hold fast my lot.into an inheritance that cannot be ruined, and cannot be stained, and cannot wither, kept in the heavens for you,THE THREAD
The LORD is the portion of my share and of my cup; you hold fast my lot.The same Hebrew words stand behind “portion” (חֵלֶק, ḥēleq: share) and “inheritance” (נַחֲלָה, nachalah: allotted possession) in both verses. Genesis asks whether the father’s house still grants a share; the psalm names the LORD as the speaker’s portion and inheritance.
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