What Does Genesis 11:23 Mean in the King James?
And Serug lived after he begat Nahor two hundred years, and begat sons and daughters.
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 repeats one birth-root for Nahor’s arrival and for the children who follow, showing a lineage as life that keeps opening.
THE MEANING
The verse holds birth and duration together: Serug’s life continues for two hundred years after Nahor is born, and more sons and daughters arrive within that span. A life extends beyond a single beginning, opening into the generations that follow.
THE ROOT
הוֹלִידוֹ
holido
GROWS FROM
י־ל־ד
y-l-d
To bear, give birth, or beget.
The same root appears first for Nahor’s birth and then for Serug fathering more children. The English repeats “begat,” but the Hebrew root also links that act to the words for child and generations, so the verse’s years become a span in which life keeps unfolding.
ALSO GROWS
yeled: A child.
יֶלֶד
The child is not separate from the act of begetting; both grow from the same root.
toledot: Generations or the account of descendants.
תּוֹלְדוֹת
This branch carries the root from one birth into the continuing line that the verse records.
THE PATTERN
What is born carries life forward beyond the moment of its beginning.
And the days of Adam after he had begotten Seth were eight hundred years: and he begat sons and daughters:That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.THE THREAD
And the days of Adam after he had begotten Seth were eight hundred years: and he begat sons and daughters:Both verses repeat the Hebrew root י־ל־ד (y-l-d), “to beget, to bring forth,” first for a named son and then for further children. The parallel makes Serug’s verse part of a recurring pattern: a birth marks a new generation, while life continues to open beyond it.
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