What Does Genesis 38:10 Mean?
And the thing he did was evil in the eyes of the LORD, so the LORD struck him down also.
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 the thing which he did displeased the LORD: wherefore he slew him also.THE KEY
The Hebrew verb translated “slew” means “caused him to die,” making the killing explicit rather than leaving it as a distant consequence.
THE MEANING
The LORD sees the deed as evil; its meaning does not rest on the doer’s own account of it. The verse names death as the consequence, and “also” binds this death to the one just named.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie this undoes is that a deed’s moral weight is settled by the doer’s own view of it; the verse names the LORD’s judgment of the act.
THE ROOT
וַיֵּרַע
wayyēraʿ
GROWS FROM
רָעַע
r-ʿ-ʿ
To be bad or evil; to act harmfully.
The Hebrew phrase calls the deed evil in the LORD’s eyes, so “displeased” carries moral judgment as well as displeasure. This word family holds the evaluation and the doing of evil together: the deed is named by the same root as evil itself.
ALSO GROWS
raʿ: Evil; bad.
רַע
This branch names the moral quality attributed to the deed.
hēreaʿ: To do evil; to harm.
הֵרֵעַ
This branch describes harmful action, joining what is done to the judgment of it.
וַיָּמֶת
wayyāmet
GROWS FROM
מוּת
m-w-t
To die; in this verb form, to cause to die.
The KJV’s “slew” carries the causative force of מוּת (mût, “to die”): he caused him to die. The preceding verse uses this same verb for Er, and “also” makes the repeated death part of the passage’s structure.
ALSO GROWS
mût: To die.
מוּת
This is the basic action contained in the causative verb translated “slew.”
māvet: Death.
מָוֶת
The related noun makes the fatal outcome explicit within the same word family.
THE PATTERN
The LORD’s sight names deeds truthfully, and judgment answers to what is done.
Against you alone have I missed the mark, and done the evil in your eyes, so that you are aligned in your word and clear when you judge.The eyes of the LORD are in every place, watching the harm and the good.Who will give back to each one according to his works.THE THREAD
And Er, Judah's firstborn, was evil in the eyes of the LORD, and the LORD struck him down.Both verses use וַיָּמֶת (wayyāmet, “he caused him to die”), from מוּת (mût, “to die”). The “also” in this verse makes that repeated verb the hinge: the same fatal action is stated again for another brother.
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