What Does Genesis 20:6 Mean in the King James?
And God said unto him in a dream, Yea, I know that thou didst this in the integrity of thy heart; for I also withheld thee from sinning against me: therefore suffered I thee not to touch her.
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
Integrity does not make restraint unnecessary: God can stop the touch before it becomes a transgression.
THE MEANING
The verse holds your integrity of heart and your capacity to cross a boundary in one frame. Restraint stands between you and the act, stopping contact before it becomes a transgression.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that inner integrity makes boundary-crossing impossible: the verse pairs a whole heart with restraint that stops the act.
THE ROOT
וָאֶחְשֹׂךְ
va'echsok
GROWS FROM
חָשַׂךְ
ḥāśak
To hold back, withhold, or spare.
“withheld” in this verse is va'echsok. Here God’s holding back reaches the point before contact: the boundary itself prevents the act from happening. The same root appears when the psalmist asks to be kept back from presumptuous sins.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāśakhtā: You withheld.
חָשַׂכְתָּ
The same verb describes Abraham not withholding his son, placing the word beside a command that stops his hand.
ḥăśōḵ: Keep back; restrain.
חֲשֹׂךְ
The psalmist uses this form to ask for restraint from presumptuous sins, echoing the blocked act here.
מֵחֲטוֹא
mechato
GROWS FROM
חָטָא
ḥāṭāʾ
To miss, miss the mark, or fail to reach.
The word translated “sinning” carries the sense of missing, and the verse names the one missed against: “me.” The possible wrong is relational, and here it is stopped before it becomes contact.
ALSO GROWS
ḥēṭ: A miss, offense, or sin.
חֵטְא
This noun keeps the sense of a missed mark inside the verse’s relational phrase, “against me.”
ḥaṭṭāʾt: Sin, guilt, or an offering associated with the missing.
חַטָּאת
This branch shows the root also names what addresses the breach created by a miss.
בְּתָם
betom
GROWS FROM
תָּמַם
tāmam
To be complete, whole, or brought to completion.
The word translated “integrity” names wholeness of heart, and the verse places that wholeness beside the need for restraint. It does not make every possible act harmless.
ALSO GROWS
tāmîm: Whole, complete, sound; sometimes rendered blameless.
תָּמִים
This branch makes integrity a quality of wholeness rather than proof that no boundary could be crossed.
tām: Whole, blameless, or straightforward.
תָּם
This related form reinforces the sense of an undivided heart present in the verse.
THE PATTERN
God’s restraint can stop a transgression before a hand reaches its target.
Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression.He keepeth back his soul from the pit, and his life from perishing by the sword.There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.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.The same root חָשַׂךְ appears in “thou hast not withheld thy son.” Here God withholds Abimelech from touching Sarah; Genesis 22:12 places that same word beside “Lay not thine hand upon the lad.” The shared root gathers withholding and a hand stopped at the threshold of action.
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