What Does Genesis 31:55 Mean?
And early in the morning Laban rose, and kissed his sons and his daughters, and blessed them. Then Laban went away, and turned back to his place.
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 early in the morning Laban rose up, and kissed his sons and his daughters, and blessed them: and Laban departed, and returned unto his place.THE KEY
The blessing of this goodbye is rooted in the knee: בָּרַךְ (barakh, “bless”) shares its root with בֶּרֶךְ (berekh, “knee”), placing tenderness inside the word itself.
THE MEANING
Real affection and a real parting can occupy the same moment: the kiss and blessing stand beside the departure. Going to one’s own place does not make the tenderness spoken to one’s family false.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A real goodbye proves the tenderness was false. Here, the kiss and blessing happen within the departure, undoing that belief.
THE ROOT
וַיְבָרֶךְ
wayvarekh from barakh
GROWS FROM
ברך
b-r-k
knee; bend the knee; bless
English can make “blessed” sound like a general good wish; the shared root keeps the knee visible beneath it. In this farewell, the word carries an image of bending toward the people from whom Laban is separating.
ALSO GROWS
knee: knee
בֶּרֶךְ
This concrete body part shows what the word family retains beneath the English rendering “blessed.”
blessing: blessing, benediction
בְּרָכָה
This noun names the spoken act Laban gives his children before leaving.
וַיַּשְׁכֵּם
wayyashkem
GROWS FROM
שכם
sh-k-m
shoulder; rise early
The phrase rendered “early in the morning” is the verb וַיַּשְׁכֵּם (wayyashkem, “rose early”), from שכם (sh-k-m, “shoulder; rise early”). English preserves the time but hides the word family that gives the morning’s first action a bodily association.
ALSO GROWS
shoulder: shoulder
שְׁכֶם
The shared consonants link Laban’s early start with the word for the body part that bears a load.
rise early: rise early, begin early
הִשְׁכִּים
This verb is the same root in another form, naming how Laban begins the day before the farewell.
וַיָּשָׁב
wayyashov from shuv
GROWS FROM
שוב
shuv
turn back, return
“turned back” in this verse is wayyashov from shuv. The root of “returned” also means “turn back,” so the verse’s final movement carries a change of direction. Laban departs and then turns back toward his own place.
ALSO GROWS
turn back: turn, turn back, return
שׁוּב
The root names the directional turn inside the English word “returned.”
bring back: bring or cause to return
הֵשִׁיב
This causative form keeps the same root’s motion of bringing something back.
THE PATTERN
A spoken blessing can accompany a real separation without erasing it.
And they blessed Rebekah, and said to her, You are our sister; be the mother of thousands of ten thousands, and let your seed take hold of the gate of those who hate them.And it happened, while he blessed them, that he stood apart from them, and was carried up into heaven.THE THREAD
The LORD bless you, and guard you.Numbers 6:24 uses the same Hebrew root ברך (barakh, “bless”) and pairs blessing with keeping. That pairing opens Laban’s farewell as spoken care over his children, present even as the separation takes place.
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