What Does Genesis 11:25 Mean in the King James?
And Nahor lived after he begat Terah an hundred and nineteen 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
Hebrew uses the same root for “beget” and “child,” so bringing life forth already carries its continuation within it.
THE MEANING
The verse holds ongoing life beside ongoing birth: what has already come forth does not exhaust what can still emerge. The life that carries one beginning onward remains bound to further beginnings.
THE ROOT
וַיּוֹלֶד
wayyoled
GROWS FROM
ילד
y-l-d
To bear or bring forth; to beget.
English separates “begat” from “child,” but the Hebrew root ילד carries both the act of begetting and the child born. The word for bringing life forth already opens toward its outcome.
ALSO GROWS
yeled: Child, boy.
יֶלֶד
The child is named by the same root as the act of begetting, joining the beginning of life to what comes from it.
yaldah: She gave birth.
יָלְדָה
This form shows the same root describing birth from another grammatical perspective, keeping the generative act connected across forms.
וַיְחִי
vayechi
GROWS FROM
חיה
ḥ-y-h
To live, be alive, or remain alive.
The root behind “lived” also names the living and life itself. Here ongoing life sits beside repeated begetting, holding continuation and new beginnings together.
ALSO GROWS
chai: Living, alive.
חַי
The adjective names the state of being alive carried by the verb in the verse.
chayyim: Life, lives.
חַיִּים
This noun makes the root’s wider sense visible: the verse speaks of a life that continues alongside more life coming forth.
THE PATTERN
One life continues beyond the first child it brings forth, with further life opening from the same generative line.
And the days of Adam after he had begotten Seth were eight hundred years: and he begat sons and daughters:Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.THE THREAD
And the days of Adam after he had begotten Seth were eight hundred years: and he begat sons and daughters:Genesis 5:4 uses the same Hebrew root, ילד (yalad), for begetting Seth and for Adam begetting sons and daughters. That root connection reveals the same movement in both verses: one birth begins a line in which further life can emerge.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
You can read any verse this way in the app, keep it as a card, and send it on.
A Bible app where you send verses from your keyboard and in Messages, and every verse has a Deep Dive.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us