What Does Genesis 19:4 Mean in the King James?

But before they lay down, the men of the city, even the men of Sodom, compassed the house round, both old and young, all the people from every quarter:

Genesis 19:4 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

The Hebrew shows the city’s people turning into a ring around the house, closing in from every side.

THE MEANING

Before the visitors can lie down, the city’s men encircle the house, young and old, from every quarter. The threat is collective: the verse describes the crowd as spanning generations and the whole city.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The lie that collective violence belongs only to a small corner of a community is undone here: the crowd spans ages and comes from every quarter.

THE ROOT

נָסַבּוּ

nā-sab-bû

GROWS FROM

סבב

s-b-b

To turn or go around; to encircle.

English “compassed” can sound like a static boundary, but the Hebrew carries the circling motion itself. Joined to “from every quarter,” it shows the crowd closing around the house on all sides.

ALSO GROWS

sovev: One who circles or surrounds.

סוֹבֵב

It keeps the crowd’s action in view as a movement around its target.

saviv: Around; all around.

סָבִיב

It names the space surrounding something, making clear how the house is enclosed.

THE PATTERN

Enclosure turns a crowd into a collective threat by closing around a vulnerable person or place.

Now as they were making their hearts merry, behold, the men of the city, certain sons of Belial, beset the house round about, and beat at the door, and spake to the master of the house, the old man, saying, Bring forth the man that came into thine house, that we may know him.

Judges 19:22 · KJVThe crowd gathers around another house and turns its enclosure into an assault at the door.

For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet.

Psalm 22:16 · KJVThe same Hebrew root circles around one afflicted speaker, making the crowd’s pressure bodily and immediate.

And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.

Revelation 20:9 · KJVThe image widens to a camp and city ringed by a mass, repeating the pattern of a community closing around its target.

THE THREAD

All nations compassed me about: but in the name of the LORD will I destroy them.

Psalm 118:10 · KJV

“Compassed” comes from the same Hebrew root, ⁨סבב⁩ (sabab), meaning to circle or encircle. The reply places deliverance in the LORD’s nature: the surrounding crowd is real, but it does not define the final power in the scene.

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