What Does Exodus 4:25 Mean in the King James?
Then Zipporah took a sharp stone, and cut off the foreskin of her son, and cast it at his feet, and said, Surely a bloody husband art thou to me.
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 cut in her son’s flesh and the name “bridegroom of blood” meet in covenant-shaped language: the Hebrew verb for cutting is also used to describe cutting a covenant.
THE MEANING
This verse places a cut in a child’s flesh beside Zipporah’s words, “a bloody husband art thou to me.” Blood is present in the act and at the feet, while the relationship is named through bridegroom language. The text holds bodily violence and kinship together without explaining the scene’s full force.
THE ROOT
וַתִּכְרֹת
wattikhrōt
GROWS FROM
כרת
to cut or sever; in some forms, to cut off
“cut off” in this verse is wattikhrōt. English separates the physical incision from covenant-making, but Hebrew uses כרת (karat) both for cutting and in the phrase כרת ברית (karat berit), “cut a covenant.” The bodily cut therefore echoes a covenant verb, though the verse leaves Zipporah’s full meaning unstated.
ALSO GROWS
karat berit: to cut a covenant
כָּרַת בְּרִית
The same verb describes covenant-making, placing the physical cut beside covenant language.
nikhrat: to be cut off or severed
נִכְרַת
This form carries the separation sense in “cut off,” showing the root can mark both an incision and a severing.
חֲתַן
ḥatan
GROWS FROM
חתן
to become related through marriage
“husband” in this verse is ḥatan. The word חֲתַן (ḥatan) names a bridegroom and a marriage relation. Joined to “bloods,” it makes the relationship itself carry the mark of what has just happened.
ALSO GROWS
ḥatan: bridegroom
חָתָן
This is the kinship word Zipporah applies to her husband in the verse.
ḥoten: father-in-law
חֹתֵן
This related term names another bond formed through marriage, showing the root’s reach into family ties.
דָּמִים
damim
GROWS FROM
דם
blood
The Hebrew phrase has דָּמִים (damim), literally “bloods,” where the KJV gives “bloody.” This plural form can also refer to bloodshed or bloodguilt, bringing a sharper edge to the phrase while leaving its exact force here open.
ALSO GROWS
dam: blood
דָּם
The singular names the blood physically present in the act.
damim: bloods; in some contexts, bloodshed or bloodguilt
דָּמִים
The plural form lets the phrase carry associations of violence as well as literal blood.
THE PATTERN
Covenant becomes visible through embodied signs and blood.
And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you.Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you.THE THREAD
In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates:The Hebrew verb rendered “made” here is כָּרַת (karat), used in the phrase “cut a covenant.” It is the same verb Zipporah uses for the incision, making explicit the covenant language compressed inside the act in Exodus.
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