What Does Exodus 2:20 Mean in the King James?
And he said unto his daughters, And where is he? why is it that ye have left the man? call him, that he may eat bread.
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 question “Where is he?” turns a stranger’s absence into a summons to the table.
THE MEANING
A person stands just beyond the circle of welcome, and someone notices, calls him in, and gives him bread. The care here is concrete: being seen becomes an invitation, and the invitation becomes food.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the idea that a stranger can be left outside once his usefulness has passed; he is called in to eat.
THE ROOT
קִרְאֶן
qirʾen
GROWS FROM
קרא
q-r-ʾ
To call or summon; the same root also carries the sense of reading or proclaiming aloud.
This call does more than locate the man: it gathers him into presence. The same root forms words for a public convocation and for reading aloud, opening a connection between calling someone in and making them part of the gathering.
ALSO GROWS
qeriʾah: Calling or reading aloud
קְרִיאָה
The shared root holds both summoning a person and speaking words aloud; here the call makes a welcome audible.
miqra: Convocation or reading
מִקְרָא
This branch can name a gathered assembly, echoing how the call draws someone from outside into company.
THE PATTERN
A stranger is received through a concrete invitation that brings them into presence and provides food.
And I will fetch a morsel of bread, and comfort ye your hearts; after that ye shall pass on: for therefore are ye come to your servant. And they said, So do, as thou hast said.Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:THE THREAD
And I will fetch a morsel of bread, and comfort ye your hearts; after that ye shall pass on: for therefore are ye come to your servant. And they said, So do, as thou hast said.The Hebrew word for “bread” here is לֶחֶם (lechem), the same word Abraham offers the visitors in Genesis 18:5. In both verses, welcome takes the form of bread set before someone who has arrived from outside.
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