What Does Exodus 17:14 Mean in the King James?
And the LORD said unto Moses, Write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua: for I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.
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 same Hebrew root names the memorial that must endure and Amalek’s remembrance that will be erased, preserving the vow of forgetting inside the record itself.
THE MEANING
You stand between two acts of memory: this account is written and placed in Joshua’s hearing, while Amalek’s remembrance is promised total erasure. The preserved record does not soften the violence; it carries the vow of extinction forward.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A record always preserves its subject: here the memorial endures while Amalek’s remembrance is vowed for erasure.
THE ROOT
זִכָּרוֹן
zikkaron
GROWS FROM
זכר
z-k-r
Remember, call to mind, mention.
“memorial / remembrance” in this verse is zikkaron. English gives “memorial” and “remembrance” separate jobs, but both grow from זכר (z-k-r, remember or mention). The account is preserved as written remembrance and spoken mention, even as the verse names a people for erasure.
ALSO GROWS
zakar: To remember, call to mind, or mention.
זָכַר
The root verb shows that a memorial keeps something present by recalling and naming it.
mazkir: One who brings something to mind; a recorder.
מַזְכִּיר
This branch links remembrance with the act of keeping an account, echoing the command to write and rehearse it.
מֹשֶׁה
Moshe
GROWS FROM
משה
m-sh-h
Draw out, especially from water.
“Moses” in this verse is Moshe. Moshe’s name carries “drawn out,” from the verb used when he is drawn from the water. The one named for being drawn out now draws this event into durable written and spoken remembrance.
ALSO GROWS
mashah: To draw out, especially from water.
מָשָׁה
This verb is the source of the name Moses and supplies the nature carried by the name in this verse.
meshitihu: “I drew him out,” the phrase associated with Moses’s naming in Exodus 2:10.
מְשִׁיתִהוּ
This form makes “drawn out” an identity carried by Moses as he receives the charge to carry the account onward.
THE PATTERN
A command endures when it is fixed as a memorial and carried forward through repeated telling.
And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast to the LORD throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance for ever.That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children:And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me.THE THREAD
Therefore it shall be, when the LORD thy God hath given thee rest from all thine enemies round about, in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance to possess it, that thou shalt blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven; thou shalt not forget it.This verse repeats the command to blot out Amalek’s remembrance, then adds, “thou shalt not forget it.” The shared זכר (z-k-r, remember or mention) root links that remembrance to Exodus’s memorial, while the final clause makes the record of erasure something that must remain in memory.
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