What Does Genesis 50:21 Mean?
Now therefore, do not fear. I will nourish you, and your little ones. And he comforted them, and spoke to their hearts.
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
Now therefore fear ye not: I will nourish you, and your little ones. And he comforted them, and spake kindly unto them.THE KEY
The verse makes comfort concrete: nourishment for an entire household comes before words that reach the heart.
THE MEANING
Fear is met by a promise that reaches beyond the frightened adults to the little ones. Nourishment gives reassurance material form; the words that follow address the heart, holding provision and comfort together.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that comfort is only something said: the care in this verse includes provision for the little ones as well as words to the heart.
THE ROOT
וַיְנַחֵם
waynaḥēm
GROWS FROM
נחם
Comfort, console; in certain forms, relent or regret.
“comforted” in this verse is waynaḥēm. נחם names consolation, while other forms of the same root describe relenting or regret. That range gives comfort a movement within a changed condition; here, it appears as care that sustains and speech that reaches the heart.
ALSO GROWS
menaḥēm: comforter
מְנַחֵם
This form names one who gives the consolation expressed by the root in the verse.
tanḥumim: consolations
תַּנְחוּמִים
The plural form makes consolation something offered in response to distress, echoing the care shown here.
niḥam: be comforted; in another stem, relent or regret
נִחַם
This form shares the same root consonants and shows the root’s range across consolation and response to a changed condition.
אֲכַלְכֵּל
ʾăkalkēl
GROWS FROM
כלכל
Sustain, maintain, provide for.
The root family can name provision itself, so “nourish” carries the sense of sustained support. The promise addresses the whole household, including its little ones, before the verse describes comfort in words.
ALSO GROWS
kalkālāh: sustenance, provision
כַּלְכָּלָה
Its consonants belong to the same כלכל family, where the act of sustaining is also named as provision.
mekhalkēl: one who sustains or provides for
מְכַלְכֵּל
This form shares the root consonants and names the one who carries out the kind of support promised in the verse.
וַיְדַבֵּר
waydabbēr
GROWS FROM
דבר
Speak, declare; the same root family also names a word or matter.
“spoke to their hearts” in this verse is waydabbēr. דָּבָר can mean a word and a matter or thing, and the verse says this speech is directed to their heart. “Spake kindly” can sound like tone alone; the Hebrew image places the heart where the speech reaches.
ALSO GROWS
dābār: word, matter, thing
דָּבָר
This noun shares the root consonants, linking speech with the matter carried by the words.
medabbēr: speaking, one who speaks
מְדַבֵּר
This form shares the root consonants and keeps attention on speech as an act directed toward the heart.
THE PATTERN
A promise against fear becomes tangible through provision, protective presence, or comfort that reaches the heart.
Even though I walk through the valley of deepest darkness, I do not fear harm, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.Look at the birds of the air, for they do not sow, nor reap, nor gather into storehouses; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much better than they?Who comforts us in all our pressure, so that we are able to comfort those in every pressure, through the same comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.THE THREAD
And all his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted, and he said, For I will go down to the grave, to my son, mourning. So his father wept for him.Genesis 37:35 uses the same root נחם for the comfort Jacob’s family offers and the comfort he cannot receive; Genesis 50:21 uses it again for comfort given to frightened hearts. The shared word holds both realities together: consolation may be refused in grief, yet the same root can name care that reaches another.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us