What Does Genesis 15:14 Mean in the King James?
And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance.
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 power that compels service does not define the ending: judgment follows, and the people come out carrying substance.
THE MEANING
This verse speaks to anyone living under a power that makes them serve: that power stands within the reach of judgment, and its claim is not final. The way out leads to more than escape; the people carry substantial provision with them.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that being made to serve fixes your identity and leaves you with nothing; the verse places both the power and its ending under judgment.
THE ROOT
יַעֲבֹדוּ
yaʿavodu
GROWS FROM
עבד
to work, labor, or serve
English “serve” can sound like a fixed condition, but עבד also names labor and the servant, holding the action and the relation in one root. The same root appears in Exodus 3:12 after the people come out: the service remains, but the one they serve changes.
ALSO GROWS
ʿeved: A servant or worker.
עֶבֶד
This branch makes visible the person bound to the service named in the verse.
ʿavodah: Labor or service.
עֲבֹדָה
It reveals the labor within “serve”; Exodus 3:12 uses the same root for service after the people come out.
THE PATTERN
Coercion does not hold the final word: release opens a changed condition beyond mere escape.
And the LORD gave the people favour in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they lent unto them such things as they required. And they spoiled the Egyptians.A Song of degrees. When the LORD turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream.The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,THE THREAD
And he said, Certainly I will be with thee; and this shall be a token unto thee, that I have sent thee: When thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain.The same Hebrew root עבד (ʿ-b-d; to work or serve) lies behind “serve” in both verses. Genesis names service under a nation; Exodus names service to God after the people come out, the root stays, while the relation changes.
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