What Does Exodus 9:3 Mean in the King James?

Behold, the hand of the LORD is upon thy cattle which is in the field, upon the horses, upon the asses, upon the camels, upon the oxen, and upon the sheep: there shall be a very grievous murrain.

Exodus 9:3 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

What English calls “grievous” is literally heavy: judgment is pictured as weight pressing across the whole herd world.

THE MEANING

The LORD’s hand is upon the animals, and a heavy pestilence strikes them. The verse names cattle, horses, asses, camels, oxen, and sheep, so the blow falls across the whole herd world.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The LORD’s hand always means shelter or rescue; here that hand is upon the animals as the source of pestilence.

THE ROOT

כָּבֵד

kaved

GROWS FROM

כבד

Be heavy; carry weight.

Here ⁨כָּבֵד⁩ (kaved, heavy) turns “grievous” into an image of weight: the pestilence presses across every kind of herd listed. The same root appears in ⁨כָּבוֹד⁩ (kavod, weight or glory), so its reach includes both what is heavy and what carries weight or honor.

ALSO GROWS

kaved: Heavy, weighty.

כָּבֵד

This is the same adjective used for the pestilence; its root makes the severity a matter of weight.

kavod: Weight, honor, glory.

כָּבוֹד

This branch shows how the root’s sense of weight extends beyond bodily heaviness to what carries presence or honor.

THE PATTERN

Scripture shows disturbances of life crossing the human-animal boundary and reaching the land and its living creatures.

Therefore shall the land mourn, and every one that dwelleth therein shall languish, with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven; yea, the fishes of the sea also shall be taken away.

Hosea 4:3 · KJVThe harm reaches the land, people, beasts, birds, and fish, crossing the boundaries between forms of life.

And I called for a drought upon the land, and upon the mountains, and upon the corn, and upon the new wine, and upon the oil, and upon that which the ground bringeth forth, and upon men, and upon cattle, and upon all the labour of the hands.

Haggai 1:11 · KJVThe drought touches the land’s produce, people, cattle, and the work of human hands.

For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.

Romans 8:22 · KJVThe groaning of creation is shared across the whole living order.

THE THREAD

And the LORD said unto Moses, Go in unto Pharaoh: for I have hardened his heart, and the heart of his servants, that I might shew these my signs before him:

Exodus 10:1 · KJV

Exodus 9:3 calls the pestilence ⁨כָּבֵד⁩ (kaved, heavy); Exodus 10:1 uses the same root in ⁨הִכְבַּדְתִּי⁩ (hikhbadti, I have made heavy) for Pharaoh’s heart. The root that measures the plague’s weight returns to describe the weight of the heart it confronts.

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