What Does Genesis 13:3 Mean in the King James?
And he went on his journeys from the south even to Beth-el, unto the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Beth-el and Hai;
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 path forward can run through the place where your dwelling first stood.
THE MEANING
Movement does not always mean leaving the beginning behind; sometimes the next stage brings you back to the place that first held your dwelling. Between Bethel, “house of God,” and Hai, “heap” or “ruin,” the verse places that return where the tent first stood.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that returning to where you began means you have failed to move forward.
THE ROOT
מַסָּעָיו
massa'av
GROWS FROM
נסע
n-s-ʿ
to set out, depart, or pull up stakes
English “journey” can sound like continuous motion, but this word grows from נסע, the act of setting out. The plural journeys culminate in a return to the first dwelling-place: moving onward can include coming back.
ALSO GROWS
nasaʿ: to set out or depart
נָסַע
A journey begins with the act of leaving one encampment, which makes the return in this verse part of a path made through repeated departures.
massaʿ: a journey or stage of travel
מַסָּע
The journey is made of stages; this stage carries the traveler back to the place where the tent first stood.
הַמָּקוֹם
ha-maqom
GROWS FROM
קום
q-w-m
to rise or stand
The word for “place” grows from קום, “to stand” or “rise.” The return is tied to where the tent stood, and the next verse reveals an altar at that same place.
ALSO GROWS
qum: to rise or stand
קוּם
This root gives the place its sense of a standing-ground, not merely a point on a map.
heqim: to raise or establish
הֵקִים
A thing established is made to stand; here the remembered place is where a tent, and then an altar, was set.
THE PATTERN
Renewal can begin by returning to the place or practice where a relationship first took shape.
And he removed from thence unto a mountain on the east of Beth-el, and pitched his tent, having Beth-el on the west, and Hai on the east: and there he builded an altar unto the LORD, and called upon the name of the LORD.And let us arise, and go up to Beth-el; and I will make there an altar unto God, who answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me in the way which I went.Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.THE THREAD
Unto the place of the altar, which he had made there at the first: and there Abram called on the name of the LORD.The same Hebrew word מָקוֹם (maqom, “place” or “standing-place”) anchors both verses. The next line reveals an altar there and the calling on the LORD’s name, so the return reaches a place of encounter as well as a campsite.
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