What Does Genesis 10:18 Mean in the King James?
And the Arvadite, and the Zemarite, and the Hamathite: and afterward were the families of the Canaanites spread abroad.
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
A shared lineage takes shape here as families disperse across places.
THE MEANING
A people can remain connected as its families spread into different places. Distance changes where they live, while the verse still names them as families of one people.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that a people must remain in one place to remain one people.
THE ROOT
נָפֹצוּ
nāphōtsû
GROWS FROM
פוץ
Scatter; disperse.
“spread abroad” in this verse is nāphōtsû. Here, נָפֹצוּ (nāphōtsû) describes the families as dispersed; Genesis 11:8 uses the same root in an active form for scattering a people. The Hebrew holds the state of being scattered and the act of scattering within one verbal family, making dispersion a way a lineage occupies the world.
ALSO GROWS
nāphōtsû: A form describing people as scattered across places.
נָפֹצוּ
This is the form used for the Canaanite families, so their spread remains tied to a shared lineage.
wayyāpeṣ: An active form meaning to scatter or disperse.
וַיָּפֶץ
In Genesis 11:8, the same root names the act of scattering, connecting the families’ dispersed state with the movement that spreads a people outward.
THE PATTERN
Scattering carries a people from one place into many regions.
So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.And the LORD shall scatter you among the nations, and ye shall be left few in number among the heathen, whither the LORD shall lead you.And Saul was consenting unto his death. And at that time there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judæa and Samaria, except the apostles.THE THREAD
So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.Genesis 10:18 uses נָפֹצוּ (nāphōtsû), “were dispersed,” from פוץ (pûṣ), “scatter, disperse.” Genesis 11:8 uses the same root for the act of scattering, linking dispersed families with a people spread across the earth.
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