What Does Genesis 17:14 Mean in the King James?
And the uncircumcised man child whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his people; he hath broken my 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 cutting verb scripture uses for making a covenant describes the person who breaks its bodily sign as cut off from the people.
THE MEANING
The verse gives covenant a hard edge: the uncircumcised male is cut off from his people, and this is named as a breach of the covenant. Belonging here reaches through the body and into the community; the consequence is separation.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that a covenant remains intact as a purely inward conviction while its bodily sign is refused without consequence.
THE ROOT
וְנִכְרְתָה
wə-nikhrətāh
GROWS FROM
כרת
kārat
to cut, sever
The verse uses וְנִכְרְתָה (wə-nikhrətāh, “shall be cut off”), from כרת (kārat, “to cut, sever”). The same verb appears in כָּרַת בְּרִית (kārat berit, “cut a covenant”), connecting covenant-making with the severance imposed for breaking this covenant.
ALSO GROWS
kārat: to cut or sever; here, in a form meaning “shall be cut off.”
כָּרַת
This form names the consequence as severance from the people, not a vague loss.
kārat berit: literally, “cut a covenant”; the Hebrew idiom for making a covenant.
כָּרַת בְּרִית
Genesis 15:18 uses this same verb where the KJV says the LORD “made a covenant,” so this verse’s “cut off” echoes the language of covenant-making.
THE PATTERN
Covenant signs make belonging visible, while belonging can also reach beyond the bodily mark.
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
In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates:In Hebrew, כָּרַת בְּרִית (kārat berit, “cut a covenant”) is the phrase rendered “made a covenant” here. Genesis 17:14 uses כרת (kārat, “cut, sever”) for the one “cut off”; the shared root ties covenant-making to the verse’s language of severance.
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