What Does Exodus 18:18 Mean in the King James?
Thou wilt surely wear away, both thou, and this people that is with thee: for this thing is too heavy for thee; thou art not able to perform it thyself alone.
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 repeated Hebrew root makes the warning communal: solitary carrying wears down both the person holding the work and the people around them.
THE MEANING
When every responsibility runs through one person, both that person and the people with them wear down. The load itself exceeds one person’s capacity; the strain reaches the whole circle, not only the carrier.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is that responsibility means being able to carry everything alone; this verse shows that solitary carrying wears down both the carrier and the people with them.
THE ROOT
נָבֹל תִּבֹּל
nāḇōl tibbol
GROWS FROM
נבל
wither, fade, waste away
English gives the phrase as “wear away”; Hebrew repeats the same root to make the wearing-down emphatic. The repeated verb casts the load as withering depletion, and applies it to both the carrier and the people with him.
ALSO GROWS
nāḇōl: withering, fading; the infinitive absolute form
נָבֹל
Its pairing with tibbol repeats the core action and intensifies the warning.
tibbōl: you will wither or fade; the second-person imperfect form
תִּבֹּל
It makes the repeated root a forecast addressed directly to the one carrying the work.
nebālāh: folly, disgrace
נְבָלָה
This related form carries the sense of what has become debased; here the root names depletion through the image of withering.
כָּבֵד
kāvēḏ
GROWS FROM
כבד
be heavy, weighty
The word rendered “heavy” belongs to כבד, the same root family behind kavod, “weight” or “weightiness,” and the verb for honoring as weighty. That shared vocabulary makes the workload’s weight concrete: it exceeds one person’s capacity.
ALSO GROWS
kavod: weight, weightiness; often rendered glory
כָּבוֹד
It shows that “heavy” and “weight” belong to the same Hebrew word family.
kibbed: to honor, treat as weighty
כִּבֵּד
The root also connects weight with the act of assigning importance; here the verse names the real weight of the work.
THE PATTERN
A load that exceeds one person’s capacity is sustained through shared responsibility.
I am not able to bear all this people alone, because it is too heavy for me.Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour.Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.THE THREAD
And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.Exodus repeats נבל to say that the solitary carrier will wither; Psalm 1 uses the same root for the leaf that does not wither. Its image of a tree by flowing water opens a contrast between wearing down and life that remains rooted and nourished.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us