What Does Genesis 34:6 Mean?
And Hamor, the father of Shechem, went out to Jacob to speak with him.
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 Hamor the father of Shechem went out unto Jacob to commune with him.THE KEY
The Hebrew word behind “commune” also names a “matter,” so the meeting is framed as bringing something into speech.
THE MEANING
You meet this verse as one person goes toward another to speak about a matter. The words have not yet settled anything; the verse holds the encounter at its opening, where the matter enters speech.
THE ROOT
לְדַבֵּר
ledabber
GROWS FROM
דבר
d-b-r
To speak or declare; the related noun davar means a word, matter, or thing.
“speak with” in this verse is ledabber. The Hebrew verb ledabber means “to speak,” while its root’s noun form davar can mean both “word” and “matter.” The verse thus holds the conversation and the matter being discussed in one word-family.
ALSO GROWS
davar: Word, matter, or thing
דָּבָר
The meeting is not only contact between two people; it is also a matter brought into words.
dibber: He spoke
דִּבֵּר
This verb form shows the same root as an act of speech between people, the purpose named in the verse.
THE PATTERN
Speech turns an approach into an encounter where a matter can be shared.
And the LORD went on his way, as soon as his speaking with Abraham had finished, and Abraham turned back to his place.And the LORD spoke with Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend. And he turned again into the camp, but Joshua son of Nun, the young man who served him, did not leave the tent.Know this, my beloved brothers. Let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to swell.THE THREAD
And the LORD went on his way, as soon as his speaking with Abraham had finished, and Abraham turned back to his place.“Communing” here and “commune” in Genesis 34:6 both come from the Hebrew root דבר (d-b-r), speak. In one verse speech opens the meeting; in the other, it marks the meeting’s close.
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