What Does Genesis 17:13 Mean in the King James?
He that is born in thy house, and he that is bought with thy money, must needs be circumcised: and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant.
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 same covenant mark reaches the man born in the house and the man bought into it, with the verse leaving that difference in status visible.
THE MEANING
You encounter the covenant here as a claim carried in the body: it reaches the male born in the house and the male bought with money. Birth and purchase are two routes into the same demanded mark, while their unequal status remains visible; the covenant is framed across ages.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the idea that covenant here is private or inherited only by blood: the verse demands a bodily sign even of those purchased into the household.
THE ROOT
מִקְנַת
miqnat
GROWS FROM
קנה
q-n-h
Acquire, buy, possess.
“bought” in this verse is miqnat. The Hebrew phrase uses a noun of acquisition: miqnat kaspekha, “the purchase of your silver.” The bodily covenant reaches a person entered into the household through wealth, with the ownership relation still visible.
ALSO GROWS
qanah: Acquire, buy, possess.
קָנָה
The source verb puts the purchased person in an acquisition relation, not merely among visitors to the house.
miqneh: Livestock, property, or possession.
מִקְנֶה
This related noun can name what is acquired and held; the verse’s mark reaches the person named through purchase.
יְלִיד
yelid
GROWS FROM
ילד
y-l-d
Bear, beget, bring forth.
The verse sets yelid, “one born,” beside miqnat, “purchase”: birth and acquisition are distinct routes into the household. Both are included in the same bodily requirement, without erasing the difference between them.
ALSO GROWS
yalad: Bear or beget.
יָלַד
This verb is the seed of “born,” marking entry into the household through birth.
yeled: Child.
יֶלֶד
This related word keeps the birth-family branch visible alongside the purchased person.
הִמּוֹל יִמּוֹל
himmol yimmol
GROWS FROM
מול
m-w-l
Circumcise; cut away the foreskin.
The Hebrew doubles the verb in himmol yimmol, an infinitive absolute followed by a finite form that intensifies the command: he must indeed be circumcised. The covenant’s mark is a demanded bodily cut, not merely an inward idea of belonging.
ALSO GROWS
mul: Circumcise.
מוּל
This verb names the bodily act required by the verse.
milah: Circumcision.
מִילָה
This related noun names the cut as a continuing bodily sign.
THE PATTERN
Covenant is made publicly legible through a sign carried by a body or set in the world.
I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth.And when a stranger shall sojourn with thee, and will keep the passover to the LORD, let all his males be circumcised, and then let him come near and keep it; and he shall be as one that is born in the land: for no uncircumcised person shall eat thereof.And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised: that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised; that righteousness might be imputed unto them also:THE THREAD
And when a stranger shall sojourn with thee, and will keep the passover to the LORD, let all his males be circumcised, and then let him come near and keep it; and he shall be as one that is born in the land: for no uncircumcised person shall eat thereof.Both verses use the מול (mul, “circumcise”) word family to make the bodily sign part of participation. Genesis includes the man bought into a household; Exodus extends the sign to a sojourner who keeps Passover and says he shall be “as one that is born in the land.”
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