What Does Genesis 21:1 Mean in the King James?

And the LORD visited Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did unto Sarah as he had spoken.

Genesis 21:1 · 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.

THE KEY

Here, “visited” names attention that arrives as action: the LORD’s word does not stay separate from what unfolds for Sarah.

THE MEANING

The verse holds the LORD’s attention and action together: he attends Sarah, and what he does matches what he has spoken. For the reader now, divine regard appears as something that meets a person in the life touched by the promise.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the belief that a promise can remain only words, disconnected from what happens: here the LORD’s speaking and doing meet.

THE ROOT

פָּקַד

paqad

GROWS FROM

פקד

p-q-d

Attend to, take account of, or muster; in this verse, attend to or visit.

The root’s range includes mustering and appointing, so “visited” carries the sense of active attention, not a passing call. The LORD’s regard for Sarah arrives as something done in her life.

ALSO GROWS

mifqād: A mustering or count of those gathered.

מִפְקָד

This branch gives “visit” the shade of deliberate attention: Sarah is the person attended to, not someone lost from view.

hipqīd: To place someone or something in another’s care or charge.

הִפְקִיד

This branch shows the root’s active sense of taking responsibility, deepening the force of the LORD’s attention to Sarah.

דִּבֶּר

dibber

GROWS FROM

דבר

d-b-r

Speak; the related noun ⁨דָּבָר⁩ can mean word, matter, or thing.

The root joins speaking with what is spoken about: ⁨דָּבָר⁩ can name both a word and a matter. The verse then places the LORD’s speech beside his action, showing the spoken word meeting what unfolds.

ALSO GROWS

dāḇār: A spoken word, matter, or affair.

דָּבָר

The noun’s range lets “as he had spoken” echo the matter itself, not only the sound of speech.

medabbēr: A speaker or one who is speaking.

מְדַבֵּר

This speaking form keeps the focus on the one whose words the verse says are matched by action.

THE PATTERN

What the LORD speaks is carried into lived reality through his attention and action.

Is any thing too hard for the LORD? At the time appointed I will return unto thee, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.

Genesis 18:14 · KJVThe promised word names Sarah’s son before the LORD’s return brings that word into her life.

There failed not ought of any good thing which the LORD had spoken unto the house of Israel; all came to pass.

Joshua 21:45 · KJVThe verse joins what the LORD has spoken with what comes to pass, as Genesis 21:1 joins speaking with doing.

And blessed is she that believed: for there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord.

Luke 1:45 · KJVWhat is told from the Lord is shown arriving as performance, carrying the same movement from word to event.

THE THREAD

And Joseph said unto his brethren, I die: and God will surely visit you, and bring you out of this land unto the land which he sware to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

Genesis 50:24 · KJV

Genesis 50:24 uses the same verb, ⁨פקד⁩ (paqad, attend or visit): God’s visit there is linked to bringing people out. The shared root opens “visited” as active regard that enters the life of the one named.

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