What Does Genesis 18:21 Mean in the King James?
I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto me; and if not, I will know.
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 cry reaches God, yet his response is to come down and see what was actually done before he knows.
THE MEANING
A cry that reaches God is heard, while the truth of what happened is still examined: God comes down to see whether the deeds match it. The verse holds hearing, examination, and knowing together, with knowledge following attention to the scene.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that an accusation and a proven verdict are the same thing: the cry reaches God, while the deeds are still examined.
THE ROOT
אֵרֲדָה
ʾērədāh
GROWS FROM
י־ר־ד
to descend, go down
English can make “go down” sound like a travel detail; the Hebrew makes descent an action directed into the scene. The verse’s sequence, go down, see, know, presents knowing as following attention to what is happening.
ALSO GROWS
yarad: descend, go down
יָרַד
This is the root verb behind the speaker’s stated movement toward the scene.
horid: bring or cause to descend
הוֹרִיד
This causative form carries the same seed of downward movement; here the speaker goes down personally.
צַעֲקָתָהּ
ṣaʿaqātāh
GROWS FROM
צ־ע־ק
to cry out, call aloud
English “cry” can blur a shout, a plea, and a report. The Hebrew צעק-family marks an outcry voiced into the open, and here that outcry is said to have come to God.
ALSO GROWS
tsa'aq: cry out, call aloud
צָעַק
The verb names the act behind the outcry that reaches God in this verse.
tse'aqah: outcry, cry for help
צְעָקָה
The noun form also appears in Exodus 3:7 for the cry that God hears, carrying a person’s condition into attention.
אֵדָעָה
ʾēḏāʿāh
GROWS FROM
י־ד־ע
to know, recognize
“know” in this verse is ʾēḏāʿāh. Yadaʿ can mean knowing or recognizing, and often carries the sense of personal acquaintance. Here it follows descent and seeing, so the verse frames knowledge as arriving through direct attention to the scene.
ALSO GROWS
yadaʿ: know, recognize
יָדַע
This verb is the seed of “I will know,” placed after the speaker goes down to see.
daʿat: knowledge, knowing
דַּעַת
The related noun shows the same root naming knowledge itself, not merely the act of receiving a report.
THE PATTERN
A cry that reaches God is met with attention to what is actually happening.
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 righteous cry, and the LORD heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles.Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth.THE THREAD
And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded.Both verses use ירד (yāraḏ, “descend”) for the LORD’s movement into a situation, paired with seeing. The repeated descent-and-seeing sequence makes divine attention concrete: the scene itself is examined before the outcome is stated.
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