What Does Exodus 8:23 Mean in the King James?
And I will put a division between my people and thy people: to morrow shall this sign be.
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 word translated “division” belongs to the Hebrew word family for redemption: here, the boundary itself is an act of release.
THE MEANING
A boundary can be the shape release takes: one side is not handed over to the same affliction. The distinction is a sign of deliverance, marked before it appears tomorrow. The verse speaks now to the experience of being surrounded without being wholly claimed by what surrounds you.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that distinction always means rejection: here, the boundary is called redemption, a separation that releases rather than abandons.
THE ROOT
פְּדוּת
pedut
GROWS FROM
פדה
to redeem, ransom, or release
The word rendered “division” is פְּדוּת (pedut, deliverance or redemption), from פדה (padah, redeem or release). The boundary between the peoples is framed in the vocabulary of release: what is set apart is being freed from a claim.
ALSO GROWS
padah: to redeem, ransom, or release
פָּדָה
This verb names the act beneath the boundary: separation here is bound to being released.
pidyon: ransom or redemption price
פִּדְיוֹן
This related noun preserves the root’s sense of release from a claim, giving the “division” a redemptive depth.
THE PATTERN
Deliverance takes form as a boundary that keeps affliction from claiming everyone alike.
But against any of the children of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue, against man or beast: that ye may know how that the LORD doth put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel.He sent redemption unto his people: he hath commanded his covenant for ever: holy and reverend is his name.And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.THE THREAD
He sent redemption unto his people: he hath commanded his covenant for ever: holy and reverend is his name.Psalm 111:9 uses פְּדוּת (pedut, redemption), from the same root פדה (padah, redeem or release) as the word rendered “division” in Exodus. What English can make sound like mere separation belongs to the language of redemption: a boundary that releases.
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