What Does Genesis 11:22 Mean in the King James?
And Serug lived thirty years, and begat Nahor:
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 root of “begat” also gives Hebrew its words for “child” and “generations,” so birth already contains the continuation of a life.
THE MEANING
Your life is more than the span you personally occupy; it can become a passage through which another life arrives. The verse places living and begetting side by side, showing continuity as a relationship between lives.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It loosens the belief that a life is sealed inside its own years: a life can become the beginning of another.
THE ROOT
וַיּוֹלֶד
wayyoled
GROWS FROM
ילד
yalad
to bear, bring forth, beget
English makes “begat” sound like a one-off event, but Hebrew keeps it inside the same root as “child” and “generations.” The verb carries the immediate birth and the unfolding lineage in one seed.
ALSO GROWS
yeled: child, young one
יֶלֶד
The verb of begetting shares its root with the word for the child brought forth.
toledot: generations, descendants
תּוֹלְדוֹת
The genealogy unfolds what is born into a continuing sequence of generations.
וַיְחִי
wayechi
GROWS FROM
חיה
chayah
to live, be alive
“Lived” is not isolated from the language of life: the same root names what is living and life itself. Beside “begat,” the verse places lived existence and the emergence of another life in a single movement.
ALSO GROWS
chai: living, alive
חַי
The verb describing Serug’s life shares its root with the word for being alive.
chayyim: life
חַיִּים
The years called “lived” belong to the same word-family as life itself.
THE PATTERN
A life’s span can become the threshold through which another generation enters.
And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth:And the women her neighbours gave it a name, saying, There is a son born to Naomi; and they called his name Obed: he is the father of Jesse, the father of David.Abraham begat Isaac; and Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob begat Judas and his brethren;THE THREAD
And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth:Genesis 5:3 uses the same Hebrew root ילד (yalad, to bear or beget) for “begat.” The repeated pairing of a life span with a birth makes this verse read as a link in a living chain, not an isolated name.
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