What Does 1 Kings 11:20 Mean in the King James?
And the sister of Tahpenes bare him Genubath his son, whom Tahpenes weaned in Pharaoh’s house: and Genubath was in Pharaoh’s household among the sons of Pharaoh.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
Genubath is named “stolen,” while the verse places him among Pharaoh’s sons: his birth, name, and household pull in different directions.
THE MEANING
This verse lets you see a life whose birth and upbringing belong to different households: his mother bears him, Tahpenes weans him, and Pharaoh’s house counts him among its sons. Even his name, Genubath, carries the sense of “stolen,” leaving the tension between origin and belonging visible.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse loosens the assumption that the household of birth and the household that raises a child must be the same.
THE ROOT
גְּנֻבַת
Gənubhat
GROWS FROM
גנב
To steal or take secretly; the name carries the sense of “stolen.”
“Genubath” in this verse is Gənubhat. The name gives this child a word of taking, even as the verse places him within Pharaoh’s household. It holds the tension between being named through what is taken and being counted among the sons of a house.
ALSO GROWS
gānav: To steal, take secretly
גָּנַב
The verb behind Genubath’s name makes the name’s sense of taking audible.
gənēvāh: Theft
גְּנֵבָה
This noun carries the same root into the act or condition of stealing.
וַתִּגְמְלֵהוּ
Vattigmelehu
GROWS FROM
גמל
To bring to completion or deal fully; in this form, to wean.
“weaned” in this verse is Vattigmelehu. Weaning marks a completed stage of care and a transition in how a child is sustained. Here that act belongs to Tahpenes, while the verse places the child in Pharaoh’s house among Pharaoh’s sons.
ALSO GROWS
gāmal: To deal with, repay, or do; also to wean
גָּמַל
The same verb-root holds both a completed dealing and the completion of nursing.
gəmūl: Dealing, recompense
גְּמוּל
This branch shows the root extending beyond nursing into what is done or rendered.
וַתֵּלֶד
Vattēled
GROWS FROM
ילד
To bear or bring forth a child.
“bare” in this verse is Vattēled. The root forms both the act of giving birth and words for the child and its birth-origin. The verse sets that origin beside a different woman’s role in weaning him, keeping birth and upbringing distinct.
ALSO GROWS
yālad: To bear, give birth
יָלַד
This is the root verb behind the verse’s account of Genubath’s birth.
yeled: Child
יֶלֶד
The related noun names the child produced by the act of birth.
THE PATTERN
A household can shape belonging through the child it receives and raises.
And the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. And she called his name Moses: and she said, Because I drew him out of the water.And he brought up Hadassah, that is, Esther, his uncle’s daughter: for she had neither father nor mother, and the maid was fair and beautiful; whom Mordecai, when her father and mother were dead, took for his own daughter.Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God;THE THREAD
And Laban went to shear his sheep: and Rachel had stolen the images that were her father’s.Genubath’s name carries the Hebrew root גנב (ganab), “to steal,” which appears here in “had stolen.” That shared root lets the name’s sense of taking echo beside the verse’s image of a child counted among another household’s sons, without saying the text explains how he came to be there.
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