What Does Genesis 20:11 Mean in the King James?
And Abraham said, Because I thought, Surely the fear of God is not in this place; and they will slay me for my wife’s sake.
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 fear Abraham says is missing in others is filtered through the fear of death already governing his own thought.
THE MEANING
When fear of death dominates your thoughts, it can make danger feel certain and make everyone around you seem without reverence for God. Here, “the fear of God” carries the sense of awe: regard for God that shapes how a person treats another. The verse holds the tension between seeing others as dangerous and recognizing that this judgment begins as a thought.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The danger I feel proves that everyone around me lacks reverence for God.
THE ROOT
יִרְאַת אֱלֹהִים
yir'at Elohim
GROWS FROM
י־ר־א
To fear or stand in awe.
“fear of God” in this verse is yir'at Elohim. The word יִרְאַת (yir’at) can carry both fear and reverent awe; with God as its object, it opens onto awe. That shade deepens Abraham’s claim: he sees reverence as the thing that would keep people from violence, while his own fear of being killed shapes what he expects from them.
ALSO GROWS
yare: To fear, be in awe.
יָרֵא
This verb shares the root and shows that the noun “fear” is bound to a response, not only an idea.
mora: Fear, reverence, or awe.
מוֹרָא
This related noun makes the reverent sense audible alongside dread.
THE PATTERN
Awe of God becomes visible in how fear and power shape a person’s treatment of others.
But the midwives feared God, and did not as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the men children alive.And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me.But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him.THE THREAD
And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me.“Fearest God” uses the same ירא (y-r-ʾ) root as “fear of God” here. In this verse Abraham says he sees that awe missing in others; in the connected verse the same root names Abraham’s own relation to God, turning the phrase back toward him.
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