What Does Exodus 14:25 Mean in the King James?
And took off their chariot wheels, that they drave them heavily: so that the Egyptians said, Let us flee from the face of Israel; for the LORD fighteth for them against the Egyptians.
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 chariots that make pursuit look unstoppable become a burden, and the pursuers recognize that the LORD is fighting for those they chase.
THE MEANING
The verse shows the machinery of pursuit losing its motion: the chariots drag, and the Egyptians turn to flee. They name the reversal themselves, the LORD is fighting for Israel against them. It speaks now wherever a force seems mechanically certain: that force can be slowed, and its confidence can break into flight.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that greater force or faster machinery makes pursuit unstoppable: the chariots become a burden, and the pursuer is the one who flees.
THE ROOT
בִּכְבֵדֻת
bikhevedut
GROWS FROM
כבד
k-b-d
To be heavy or weighty; by extension, to be weighty or honored.
“heavily” in this verse is bikhevedut. The chariot’s strength becomes its drag: its weight no longer carries pursuit forward. English gives the difficulty, while the Hebrew root also connects this heaviness to כָּבוֹד (kavod, weight or glory), revealing how the same language of weight can describe either burden or honor.
ALSO GROWS
kaved: Heavy, weighty.
כָּבֵד
This branch makes the chariots’ impediment tangible: what once drove the pursuit now weighs it down.
kavod: Weight; by extension, honor or glory.
כָּבוֹד
It shares the root of the chariots’ heaviness, showing that Hebrew can use weight for both burden and honor.
נִלְחָם
nilḥām
GROWS FROM
לחם
l-ḥ-m
To fight or wage war.
“fighteth” in this verse is nilḥām. The word names an active contest: the LORD is fighting on Israel’s behalf and against Egypt. The pursuers themselves recognize that the struggle is not simply between armies; the LORD is contending for the people they chase.
ALSO GROWS
lāḥam: To fight or wage war.
לָחַם
This verbal form makes the conflict direct and active, matching the Egyptians’ recognition of what is happening.
milḥāmāh: Battle, war.
מִלְחָמָה
The related noun names the larger contest behind the failed pursuit.
THE PATTERN
When the LORD contends for the pursued, the force pursuing them can lose its certainty and turn back.
The LORD your God which goeth before you, he shall fight for you, according to all that he did for you in Egypt before your eyes;Ye shall not need to fight in this battle: set yourselves, stand ye still, and see the salvation of the LORD with you, O Judah and Jerusalem: fear not, nor be dismayed; to morrow go out against them: for the LORD will be with you.What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?THE THREAD
The LORD your God which goeth before you, he shall fight for you, according to all that he did for you in Egypt before your eyes;Both verses use the Hebrew root לחם (l-ḥ-m, to fight or wage war). Exodus shows the pursuers recognizing that the LORD fights for Israel; Deuteronomy states that same contest as the LORD going before the people and fighting for them.
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