What Does Exodus 14:3 Mean in the King James?
For Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel, They are entangled in the land, the wilderness hath shut them in.
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
Pharaoh calls them trapped, but the verse presents that closure as his forecast, not the final truth of their position.
THE MEANING
The verse exposes the voice that reads confusion and confinement as a finished story. Your circumstances can feel sealed around you, while the conclusion that no way through exists remains an interpretation, not the last word.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is: “Because I feel trapped and cannot see a way through, no way through exists.”
THE ROOT
סָגַר
sagar
GROWS FROM
סגר
sagar
To shut, close, or enclose.
“shut” in this verse is sagar. The Hebrew gives the wilderness the action: it closes around them, making the land feel like an enclosing force. This root can also describe handing someone over, so the closure carries the force of being placed under another’s control.
ALSO GROWS
sagur: Closed, shut.
סָגוּר
This form names the condition Pharaoh imagines: a place sealed around them.
hisgir: Handed over, surrendered.
הִסְגִּיר
The same root lets closure shade into being delivered into another’s control.
נְבֻכִים
nevukhim
GROWS FROM
בוך
bukh
To be confused, perplexed, or entangled.
English “entangled” can sound like obstacles physically knotting them; the Hebrew also names a mind thrown into confusion. Beside the land closing around them, Pharaoh imagines them unable to find their bearings.
ALSO GROWS
navokh: Perplexed, bewildered.
נָבוֹךְ
This related form makes the inner disorientation in Pharaoh’s assessment clear.
mevukhah: Confusion, perplexity.
מְבוּכָה
The noun names the bewilderment that accompanies the imagined enclosure.
THE PATTERN
Being hemmed in can describe the felt condition without proving that the way forward is gone.
And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will shew to you to day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever.He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and brake their bands in sunder.We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;THE THREAD
And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will shew to you to day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever.The next verse places another possibility beside the closure: the people can see the LORD’s deliverance even while the threat is still visible. The landscape’s apparent enclosure does not supply the ending.
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