What Does Exodus 6:16 Mean in the King James?
And these are the names of the sons of Levi according to their generations; Gershon, and Kohath, and Merari: and the years of the life of Levi were an hundred thirty and seven years.
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 verse measures Levi’s life in years, then carries it forward through names that echo joining, expulsion, and bitterness.
THE MEANING
Your life has a counted span, yet it also enters the bonds and names that outlast that span. Levi’s name carries the sense of joining, while the names of his sons hold further echoes, including possible echoes of expulsion and bitterness. The verse places measured years beside a family line whose names carry more than chronology.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It loosens the belief that your life is only the number of years you live, and that its meaning ends with them.
THE ROOT
לֵוִי
Levi
GROWS FROM
לוה
L-W-H
Join, attach, accompany.
Levi’s name is linked to the verb for being joined. The verse names his sons as a line issuing from that joining, so the name carries a sense of connection beyond the moment in which it was given.
ALSO GROWS
lavah: Join, accompany.
לָוָה
This is the verb Leah uses when she says her husband will be joined to her; it opens the meaning carried in Levi’s name.
leviyyah: Accompaniment, escort.
לְוִיָּה
This related form preserves the idea of being joined to someone along a way.
גֵּרְשׁוֹן
Gershon
GROWS FROM
גרש
G-R-Sh
Drive out, expel.
Gershon is often associated with גרש (garash, to drive out), though the name’s derivation is not certain. This possible root echo places the language of expulsion beside Levi’s language of joining, letting the family line hold both connection and displacement.
ALSO GROWS
garash: Drive out, expel.
גָּרַשׁ
The verb gives the possible root echo in Gershon’s name its force.
gerush: Expulsion; divorce.
גֵּרוּשׁ
This noun carries the same root’s sense of being sent away or separated.
מְרָרִי
Merari
GROWS FROM
מרר
M-R-R
Be bitter, embitter.
Merari’s name echoes the root for bitterness, often understood as “bitter one” or “my bitterness.” The name keeps that sharp taste within the genealogy, so the line carries difficult textures as well as continuity.
ALSO GROWS
mar: Bitter.
מָר
This short form makes the root’s basic taste plain.
merorim: Bitter herbs.
מְרֹרִים
The same root names bitterness that is tasted, giving Merari’s name a concrete resonance.
THE PATTERN
A name carries a person’s nature or lived condition into the story that follows.
And she conceived again, and bare a son; and said, Now this time will my husband be joined unto me, because I have born him three sons: therefore was his name called Levi.And she bare him a son, and he called his name Gershom: for he said, I have been a stranger in a strange land.And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.THE THREAD
And she conceived again, and bare a son; and said, Now this time will my husband be joined unto me, because I have born him three sons: therefore was his name called Levi.The joining expressed here gives the root sense carried by Levi’s name. In Exodus, that name stands at the head of a line of sons, extending the language of joining from one bond into generations.
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