What Does Genesis 47:27 Mean?
And Israel settled in the land of Egypt, in the land of Goshen, and they took hold of it, and bore fruit, and multiplied exceedingly.
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 Israel dwelt in the land of Egypt, in the country of Goshen; and they had possessions therein, and grew, and multiplied exceedingly.THE KEY
Israel’s life takes root in Egypt, yet the narrow place cannot set the measure of its increase.
THE MEANING
You can dwell in a constricted place while life within you still bears fruit and multiplies. Israel has a foothold there, and its increase becomes exceedingly great. The narrowness is real, but it does not define the measure of what is growing.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that growth must wait until the constricting place is gone.
THE ROOT
וַיִּפְרוּ
vayyifru
GROWS FROM
פרה
To bear fruit, be fruitful.
“bore fruit” in this verse is vayyifru. The word translated “grew” carries the language of bearing fruit, the same root that names fruit itself. Israel’s increase is pictured as life producing fruit, not simply getting bigger.
ALSO GROWS
peri: Fruit
פְּרִי
This noun makes the root’s picture tangible: what grows is fruit that can be seen and gathered.
hifrāh: Made fruitful; caused to bear fruit
הִפְרָה
This causative form extends the root from bearing fruit to producing fruitfulness, echoing how the verse describes increase across a people.
וַיִּרְבּוּ
vayyirbu
GROWS FROM
רבה
To increase, become many.
“multiplied” in this verse is vayyirbu. The word means becoming many, and its family also names abundance and greatness. Beside fruit-bearing, it shows that the growth here is both generative and multiplying.
ALSO GROWS
rov: Abundance; multitude
רֹב
This noun gives the verb’s increase a sense of abundance rather than mere survival.
rav: Many; great
רַב
This related word carries the same movement toward many and great, illuminating the scale of Israel’s increase.
וַיֵּאָחֲזוּ
wayye’ahazu
GROWS FROM
אחז
To grasp, seize, or take hold.
“took hold” in this verse is wayye’ahazu. The verb behind “had possessions” pictures taking hold of or settling into a place. Its word family keeps a tangible sense in the line: Israel’s life is not only increasing; it has gained a foothold in the land.
ALSO GROWS
achuzzah: Holding; possession
אֲחֻזָּה
This related noun names a holding or possession, making the verse’s foothold in the land concrete.
achuz: Held; seized
אָחוּז
This form preserves the root’s sense of something grasped or held, connecting possession with taking hold of a place.
THE PATTERN
Fruitfulness and increase can unfold within the place where life is planted.
And God blessed them, and God said to them, "Bear fruit and multiply, and fill the earth, and tread it under your foot, and rule over the fish of the sea, and over the winged of the heavens, and over every living thing that creeps upon the earth."And the children of Israel bore fruit and swarmed and multiplied and grew exceedingly mighty; and the land was filled with them.And the word of God grew, and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly, and a great crowd of the priests heard and responded by leaning their weight.THE THREAD
And the children of Israel bore fruit and swarmed and multiplied and grew exceedingly mighty; and the land was filled with them.Exodus 1:7 repeats the roots behind “grew” and “multiplied”: פָּרָה (parah), to bear fruit, and רָבָה (ravah), to become many. It says the land is filled with them, revealing growth that fills its setting even when that setting is Egypt.
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