What Does Exodus 11:6 Mean in the King James?
And there shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there was none like it, nor shall be like it any more.
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
The word translated “cry” is an outcry, making the grief audible as a collective appeal rather than a mere sound.
THE MEANING
The cry fills a whole land: grief is public and exceeds every comparison. The verse meets the reader now with suffering that cannot be reduced to a private feeling or a small event. Its language leaves devastation audible at full scale.
THE ROOT
צְעָקָה
tse'aqah
GROWS FROM
צעק
To cry out or call for help.
English “cry” can sound like a noise or an emotion; צְעָקָה (tse’aqah, “outcry”) carries the sense of a voice raised from distress. The verse enlarges that voiced distress until it belongs to the whole land and admits no comparison.
ALSO GROWS
ṣāʿaq: To cry out or call for help.
צָעַק
The verb names the act behind the outcry: distress given a voice.
ṣōʿăqîm: Those crying out.
צֹעֲקִים
This participle makes the same root describe people in the act of raising their voices, linking the land-wide cry to those who utter it.
THE PATTERN
Across scripture, an outcry gives grief a public voice when loss exceeds ordinary speech.
And when Esau heard the words of his father, he cried with a great and exceeding bitter cry, and said unto his father, Bless me, even me also, O my father.Thus saith the LORD; A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping; Rahel weeping for her children refused to be comforted for her children, because they were not.And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas, that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate.THE THREAD
Then they cried unto the LORD in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses.Psalm 107:6 uses וַיִּצְעֲקוּ (vayyitsʿaqû, “they cried out”), from the same root צעק (ṣ-ʿ-q, “cry out”). Exodus 11:6 lets that outcry fill a land with grief; the psalm pairs the same voiced distress with deliverance out of trouble.
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