What Does Genesis 16:14 Mean in the King James?
Wherefore the well was called Beer-lahai-roi; behold, it is between Kadesh and Bered.
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 well’s name joins life to sight: the Living One is the one who sees you.
THE MEANING
This name speaks now: the Living One sees you. The well’s name makes that seeing concrete, tied to a place. The verse does not say the hard place has vanished; it says life and sight are present there.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie this name undoes is that being unseen by people means being unseen altogether.
THE ROOT
רֹאִי
ro’i
GROWS FROM
ראה
ra’ah
to see, look at, perceive
The name’s final element carries the root for seeing, echoing Hagar’s words, “Thou God seest me” (Genesis 16:13). The place-name preserves that encounter: this is the well of the Living One who sees me.
ALSO GROWS
mar’eh: sight, appearance
מַרְאֶה
The same root gives a name to what is seen, keeping the act of seeing joined to what comes into view.
nir’ah: appeared, was seen
נִרְאָה
This form holds both sides of the encounter together: someone sees, and someone is seen.
לַחַי
laḥai
GROWS FROM
חיה
ḥayah
to live, be alive
“the Living One” in this verse is laḥai. The name joins the one who is alive with the one who sees. Life here is not abstract: it is held together with attentive presence.
ALSO GROWS
ḥayyim: life
חַיִּים
The word for life grows from the same root as the Living One named at the well.
ḥāyâ: to live, remain alive
חָיָה
This verb makes the root’s life-bearing quality active: the name speaks of one who lives.
THE PATTERN
The divine gaze reaches the exposed person before the outward condition changes.
And the LORD said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows;The eyes of the LORD are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry.Nathanael saith unto him, Whence knowest thou me? Jesus answered and said unto him, Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee.THE THREAD
And she called the name of the LORD that spake unto her, Thou God seest me: for she said, Have I also here looked after him that seeth me?Genesis 16:13 voices the seeing; this verse carries that encounter into a place-name. The well preserves the testimony of being seen in the name Beer-lahai-roi.
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