What Does Genesis 18:14 Mean in the King James?
Is any thing too hard for the LORD? At the time appointed I will return unto thee, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.
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 Hebrew shifts the question from what seems too hard to whether anything lies beyond the LORD’s wonder, then anchors that wonder in an appointed season.
THE MEANING
The question speaks now wherever a limit feels final: it asks whether that limit also binds the LORD. The promise is specific, joining an appointed return with life in Sarah’s son. Possibility here is neither vague nor detached from time; it arrives in a named season.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the lie that what human capacity cannot accomplish must therefore be impossible in every sense.
THE ROOT
יִפָּלֵא
yippale
GROWS FROM
פלא
Be extraordinary, wondrous, or beyond ordinary reach.
The Hebrew verb can describe what is wondrous or beyond human capacity, giving “too hard” the shade of “beyond the ordinary.” The verse asks whether any matter is beyond the LORD’s reach, then answers with a promise that takes form in a specific life.
ALSO GROWS
pele: Something remarkable or beyond the ordinary.
פֶּלֶא
It reveals the wonder already inside the question translated “too hard.”
nifla’ot: Extraordinary acts or things.
נִפְלָאוֹת
This branch shows that the root can name what exceeds ordinary human measure, not simply what is difficult.
מוֹעֵד
mo'ed
GROWS FROM
יעד
Set, designate, or appoint.
“appointed” in this verse is mo'ed. The promise is attached to a mo’ed, a designated time. The verse places wonder inside time: what is promised has a season of arrival.
ALSO GROWS
ya’ad: To set or designate something for a purpose or time.
יָעַד
This verb makes the appointed season an intentional setting, not an unspecified delay.
no’ad: To be designated or gathered at an appointed time.
נוֹעַד
This form echoes the idea of a set meeting point, sharpening the promise’s timing.
חַיָּה
chayyah
GROWS FROM
חיה
Live, be alive.
The phrase translated “time of life” contains the language of living; it is also an idiom for this time next year. The promise’s season is not an abstraction: it is tied to life arriving as Sarah’s son.
ALSO GROWS
chai: Living or alive.
חַי
This adjective shows the root’s direct link between life and being alive.
chayyim: Life, or the state of being alive.
חַיִּים
This noun makes explicit the life-language carried in the phrase “time of life.”
THE PATTERN
What exceeds human grasp is held within the LORD’s power, while its unfolding belongs to an appointed time.
Ah Lord GOD! behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee:For with God nothing shall be impossible.He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.THE THREAD
Ah Lord GOD! behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee:Jeremiah uses the same Hebrew verb, יִפָּלֵא (yippale, “be beyond reach or extraordinary”), from פלא (pala), that Genesis frames as a question. Genesis asks whether anything is beyond the LORD; Jeremiah turns that question into testimony.
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