What Does Genesis 32:23 Mean?
He took them and sent them across the streambed, and sent across all that he had.
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 took them, and sent them over the brook, and sent over that he had.THE KEY
The repeated Hebrew root means Jacob causes his people to cross, then causes everything he has to cross after them.
THE MEANING
The passage speaks to the lived work of crossing: the people go over the brook, and what belongs to Jacob crosses too. The same root binds both movements, holding the people and what accompanies them within one passage.
THE ROOT
וַיַּעֲבִרֵם
wayyaʿăvîrēm
GROWS FROM
עָבַר
ʿāvar
to cross over, pass through
“sent across” in this verse is wayyaʿăvîrēm. The same three-letter root appears twice: Jacob causes the people to cross, then causes all he has to cross. English “sent” keeps the action, while the Hebrew repetition makes both movements one crossing over a threshold.
ALSO GROWS
ʿēver: the other side; what is beyond
עֵבֶר
The noun gives the root’s movement a destination: crossing means arriving on the far side.
maʿăbār: a passage or crossing-place
מַעֲבָר
This branch names the route across, making the brook a threshold the people and possessions pass through together.
THE PATTERN
A crossing carries people or whole communities through a threshold, and can name movement between states as well as places.
And the priests who lifted the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood steady on dry ground in the midst of Jordan, and all the Israelites crossed over on dry ground, until all the people had finished crossing over Jordan.When you cross through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not kindle upon you.Truly, truly, I say to you, Whoever hears and responds to my word, and leans his full weight on him who sent me, has the life of the ages, and does not come under the judgment, but has crossed over from death into life.THE THREAD
Terror and dread shall fall upon them; by the greatness of your arm they shall be as still as a stone, until your people cross over, O LORD, until this people you have bought cross over.The song uses the same root עָבַר (ʿāvar, “cross over”) for a people moving through a boundary. Genesis uses its causative form as Jacob brings his people and possessions across; Exodus sings of an entire people passing over.
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