What Does Exodus 15:27 Mean in the King James?
And they came to Elim, where were twelve wells of water, and threescore and ten palm trees: and they encamped there by the waters.
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 Hebrew word for “wells” also means “eyes”: each spring is an opening in the land through which hidden water appears.
THE MEANING
This verse holds abundance in a concrete form: twelve springs, seventy palms, and a place to camp beside the waters. It gives the reader a picture of relief that lasts long enough to become a place to settle, not only a momentary drink.
THE ROOT
עֵינֹת
ʿênōṯ
GROWS FROM
ע־י־ן
ʿ-y-n
Eye; spring or fountain. The singular noun עַיִן (ʿayin) carries both meanings.
English presents these as wells, while Hebrew uses a word that also means eyes. A spring is an opening in the land, where water that was hidden comes into view.
ALSO GROWS
ʿayin: Eye; spring or fountain
עַיִן
The same noun holds both meanings, joining the eye’s opening with the place water emerges.
ʿênōṯ: Springs or fountains
עֵינֹת
This plural form names the twelve water sources at Elim.
maʿyan: Spring or fountain
מַעְיָן
This related word preserves the spring or source sense, keeping the root’s connection to an opening where water flows visible.
THE PATTERN
Life-giving water turns exposed places into places of rest and ongoing care.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.The beast of the field shall honour me, the dragons and the owls: because I give waters in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert, to give drink to my people, my chosen.For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.THE THREAD
And the angel of the LORD found her by a fountain of water in the wilderness, by the fountain in the way to Shur.Genesis uses עַיִן (ʿayin, “eye; spring or fountain”) for the wilderness fountain, the same word family behind Exodus’s עֵינֹת (ʿênōṯ, “springs”). In both verses, a spring opens in the wilderness; here, twelve such openings and the surrounding palms make the source a place to remain.
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