What Does Genesis 17:2 Mean in the King James?
And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly.
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 verse joins covenant with multiplication: the bond between God and a person becomes the setting for life to expand.
THE MEANING
Here covenant is a bond between God and a person, and increase unfolds within that bond. The verse speaks of multiplying exceedingly: life expanding beyond its present measure. It gives the reader a picture of abundance growing within relationship.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the belief that covenant diminishes life: here, the bond itself is joined to extraordinary increase.
THE ROOT
וְאַרְבֶּה
veʾarbeh
GROWS FROM
רבה
r-b-h
To become many or increase.
English can make “multiply” sound like a numerical result, but this root names becoming many, an expansion of life. With “exceedingly” repeated, the verse presses that increase beyond ordinary measure.
ALSO GROWS
rav: Many; great.
רַב
The same root carries both multitude and greatness, giving “multiply” the sense of expansive increase.
hirbah: To increase or make many.
הִרְבָּה
This form names causing increase, echoing the promise that God will multiply the person addressed.
THE PATTERN
God’s promise of increase is framed as a relationship that opens life beyond its present measure.
And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.And he will love thee, and bless thee, and multiply thee: he will also bless the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy land, thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep, in the land which he sware unto thy fathers to give thee.Saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee.THE THREAD
And I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed;Genesis 26:4 repeats the same Hebrew root for increase, joining multiplication to Abraham’s seed and to God’s promise. It opens this verse further by showing the promised increase extending into generations and blessing the nations.
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