What Does Genesis 35:5 Mean?
And they pulled up their stakes, and the shattering of God was upon the cities all around them, and they did not pursue the sons of Jacob.
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 they journeyed: and the terror of God was upon the cities that were round about them, and they did not pursue after the sons of Jacob.THE KEY
Jacob’s name carries a heel-following image, yet here no one follows after his sons: dismay stops pursuit before it begins.
THE MEANING
The verse shows danger being interrupted where it forms: dismay falls on the surrounding cities, and the people who could pursue do not. The travelers continue without the threat reaching them.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that safety must come from overpowering a threat: here, the threat loses its momentum before pursuit begins.
THE ROOT
חִתַּת
chittat
GROWS FROM
חתת
ḥ-t-t
To be shattered, dismayed, or terrified.
“shattering” in this verse is chittat. English “terror” can sound like an abstract force, but this root carries the felt sense of being broken down or dismayed. That dismay rests on the surrounding cities, and their pursuit never happens.
ALSO GROWS
chittat: Dismay, terror
חִתַּת
This is the form naming what settles on the surrounding cities.
techat: Be dismayed, be shattered
תֵּחָת
The same root appears in Joshua 1:9, where a person is told not to be dismayed; here, dismay takes hold of those who might pursue.
יַעֲקֹב
Yaʿaqov
GROWS FROM
עקב
ʿ-q-b
Heel; by extension, following at the heel or supplanting.
Jacob’s name preserves a heel image that English reads as only a personal label. Here the following implied by that image is turned around: no one pursues after his sons.
ALSO GROWS
ʿaqev: Heel
עָקֵב
Genesis 25:26 connects this root to Jacob’s name through his hand taking hold of Esau’s heel.
Yaʿaqov: Jacob; associated with heel-holding and supplanting
יַעֲקֹב
The name’s heel-following image resonates with “pursue after,” the action this verse says does not occur.
THE PATTERN
God’s presence is shown preceding contact, setting dread on a threat so the threatened can pass without being pursued.
I will send my terror before you, and I will put to death all the people among whom you come, and I will give all your enemies their backs to you.This day I begin to set your dread and your fear upon the face of the peoples under all the heavens, who will hear of you, and will tremble, and writhe because of you.And she said to the men, I know that the LORD has given you the land, and that your terror has fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land melt from your face.THE THREAD
And after that his brother came out, and his hand gripped Esau's heel; and his name was called Jacob, the heel-grasper; and Isaac was sixty years old when she bore them.Genesis 25:26 exposes the heel image behind Jacob’s name: his hand takes hold of Esau’s heel, and the name is given. Here, that name’s image of following at the heel turns around, no one follows after Jacob’s sons.
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