What Does Genesis 37:14 Mean?
And he said to him, Go, I pray you, see whether there is wholeness with your brothers and wholeness with the flocks, and bring me word again. So he sent him out of the valley of Hebron, and he came to Shechem.
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 said to him, Go, I pray thee, see whether it be well with thy brethren, and well with the flocks; and bring me word again. So he sent him out of the vale of Hebron, and he came to Shechem.THE KEY
Jacob asks whether both his brothers and the flock have shalom, placing human and animal well-being inside the same idea of wholeness.
THE MEANING
Care here means looking for the wholeness of both people and the flock around them. Joseph is sent to see their condition and return with a report. The verse keeps care concrete: their condition is looked at, then spoken back to someone who cares.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The assumption that care for human kin and care for animals are separate concerns is unsettled here: Jacob asks about both with the same word, שָׁלוֹם (shalom, wholeness).
THE ROOT
שְׁלוֹם
shalom
GROWS FROM
שלם
sh-l-m
To be complete or whole; to bring to wholeness.
Jacob asks about the שָׁלוֹם (shalom, wholeness) of both brothers and flocks, using one word for their well-being. English “well” can sound like a passing condition; this word points to a whole state of being.
ALSO GROWS
shalem: Whole, complete.
שָׁלֵם
This form makes the verse’s question about whether the brothers and flock are intact in their well-being.
shillem: To repay, recompense, or make good.
שִׁלֵּם
This branch carries wholeness into the idea of settling what is due or making something good again.
וַיִּשְׁלָחֵהוּ
vayishlachehu
GROWS FROM
שלח
sh-l-ḥ
To send, send forth, or release.
The text pairs a sending with a search: Joseph is sent forth so someone can learn the others’ condition. The root’s outward movement carries the act of seeing and reporting.
ALSO GROWS
shilluach: Sending away or dismissal.
שִׁלּוּחַ
This noun keeps the idea of release visible in Joseph’s dispatch from the valley.
Shiloach: Sent forth; also the name of a water channel or pool.
שִׁלֹחַ
The name preserves the root’s image of something sent outward from a source, echoing Joseph’s movement toward the people he is sent to see.
דָּבָר
davar
GROWS FROM
דבר
d-b-r
To speak; the noun can mean a word, matter, or thing.
The message Joseph returns with is a דָּבָר (davar, word), a term that can also name a matter or thing. The word-family holds speech and the matter spoken about together, making the requested report a concrete account of their condition.
ALSO GROWS
dibber: To speak.
דִּבֵּר
The spoken report is how Joseph makes what he sees known to Jacob.
devarim: Words, matters, or things.
דְּבָרִים
This plural preserves the link between what is said and the matter being reported.
THE PATTERN
Care for wholeness sends attention outward: it looks closely at others’ condition and brings their state into view.
Know well the faces of your flocks, and set your heart upon the herds.Each of you, do not fix your eyes on your own things, but also on the things of others.THE THREAD
And he asked them about their wholeness, and said, Is your father whole, the old man of whom you spoke? Is he still alive?Genesis 37:14 uses שָׁלוֹם (shalom, wholeness) for the brothers’ and flock’s well-being; here, the same word appears as “welfare” and “well” in the question about their father. The root carries one question of wholeness across the family.
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