What Does Genesis 10:25 Mean in the King James?
And unto Eber were born two sons: the name of one was Peleg; for in his days was the earth divided; and his brother’s name was Joktan.
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 Hebrew root behind Peleg’s division also names a watercourse, holding rupture and a channel for flow in one word-family.
THE MEANING
This verse holds kinship and rupture together: Peleg and Joktan share a father and remain brothers, while the earth is marked as divided. A fracture can mark what has happened without erasing the shared beginning beneath it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that division means there was never a shared beginning.
THE ROOT
נִפְלְגָה
niphlegah
GROWS FROM
פלג
to divide, split, or cleave
The word for the earth being divided belongs to the same root family as peleg, a stream or watercourse. The root holds both a split and a channel: a division can also mark a course through which something flows.
ALSO GROWS
niphlegah: was divided
נִפְלְגָה
This is the form used for the earth’s division in the verse.
peleg: stream, channel, or watercourse
פֶּלֶג
This noun branch gives the root’s division a concrete image: a course formed for water to move through.
palag: to divide or split
פָּלַג
This verbal form names the action carried by the verse’s word for divided.
THE PATTERN
Division can create a channel for movement or fracture a whole that needs to hold together.
Who hath divided a watercourse for the overflowing of waters, or a way for the lightning of thunder;And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.And Jesus knew their thoughts, and said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand:THE THREAD
And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.The Hebrew word translated “rivers” is פֶּלֶג (peleg), from the same root as “divided” in Genesis 10:25. The root’s channel sense opens another image of division: a course through which water can bring life.
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