What Does Genesis 18:4 Mean in the King James?
Let a little water, I pray you, be fetched, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree:
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 invitation to “rest” is an invitation to lean your weight into support.
THE MEANING
You are welcomed through ordinary provision: water for tired feet and a shaded place to settle. The word translated “rest” carries the sense of leaning, so rest here is something you can receive as support.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This loosens the idea that rest is only inactivity: here it means letting support bear your weight.
THE ROOT
וְהִשָּׁעֲנוּ
ve-hisha'anu
GROWS FROM
שען
To lean on or support oneself; by extension, to rely.
“rest yourselves” in this verse is ve-hisha'anu. English “rest” can sound like simply stopping, but וְהִשָּׁעֲנוּ (ve-hisha’anu, lean yourselves) comes from שען (sha’an, lean or rely). Under the tree, rest takes the shape of letting a place of shelter bear your weight.
ALSO GROWS
mash'en: A support or staff
מַשְׁעֵן
This branch names what bears weight, making visible the support already contained in the invitation to lean.
mash'enah: A support or staff
מַשְׁעֵנָה
This related form also names something leaned on; the same root links resting with receiving support.
THE PATTERN
Welcome becomes tangible when bodily needs are met and shelter gives a guest a place to settle.
And the man came into the house: and he ungirded his camels, and gave straw and provender for the camels, and water to wash his feet, and the men’s feet that were with him.After that he poureth water into a bason, and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded.Well reported of for good works; if she have brought up children, if she have lodged strangers, if she have washed the saints’ feet, if she have relieved the afflicted, if she have diligently followed every good work.THE THREAD
Who is among you that feareth the LORD, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness, and hath no light? let him trust in the name of the LORD, and stay upon his God.The word rendered “stay” comes from the same root as “rest yourselves”: שען (sha’an, lean or rely). The image moves from leaning under a tree to leaning upon God, revealing rest and reliance as branches of the same word.
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