What Does Exodus 23:17 Mean in the King James?
Three times in the year all thy males shall appear before the Lord GOD.
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
To appear before God is also to come into view: the Hebrew verb carries seeing inside appearing.
THE MEANING
The verse places a recurring claim on the community: its males appear before the LORD GOD three times each year. This is embodied presence, and the Hebrew verb lets appearing carry the sense of being seen.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that presence before God is merely inward: here it takes the form of recurring, embodied appearance.
THE ROOT
יֵרָאֶה
yērāʾeh
GROWS FROM
ראה
See, look at; in this verb form, appear or be seen.
The verb comes from ראה (r-ʾ-h, “see”) and takes a form meaning “appear” or “be seen.” English can make appearing sound like simple attendance; the Hebrew keeps the act of seeing within it, placing the one who appears in view.
ALSO GROWS
roʾeh: One who sees; a seer.
רֹאֶה
This branch makes the root’s seeing explicit: appearing before God belongs to the same word-family as seeing.
marʾeh: Sight, appearance, or vision.
מַרְאֶה
This related noun keeps sight and appearance close together, echoing the verse’s movement from showing up to being seen.
THE PATTERN
Encounter with God takes visible, embodied form through recurring presence before him.
Thrice in the year shall all your men children appear before the Lord GOD, the God of Israel.Three times in a year shall all thy males appear before the LORD thy God in the place which he shall choose; in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles: and they shall not appear before the LORD empty:My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?THE THREAD
My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?The Hebrew verb for “appear” here comes from the same root as the verb in Exodus. The yearly appearance before God becomes, in the psalm, a present longing to come into that same presence.
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