What Does Genesis 21:10 Mean in the King James?
Wherefore she said unto Abraham, Cast out this bondwoman and her son: for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac.
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 root for inheriting also forms the verb for dispossessing, so Isaac’s claim to the inheritance is spoken together with the command to expel the bondwoman’s son.
THE MEANING
Here inheritance is a boundary drawn in real time: Sarah demands that Hagar and her son be expelled while Isaac is named as the heir. The claim and its cost stand in the same sentence; the mother and child are the ones told to leave.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the assumption that an inheritance claim is always a harmless gift: here Isaac’s heirship is joined to the expulsion of Hagar and her son.
THE ROOT
יִירַשׁ
yirash
GROWS FROM
ירש
Y-R-Sh
To possess or inherit; in a causative form, to dispossess.
“shall not be heir” in this verse is yirash. The same ירש (Y-R-Sh, possess or inherit) root-family can name receiving an inheritance and dispossessing someone else. Here Isaac’s status as heir is asserted alongside the removal of Hagar and her son, exposing the cost inside the inheritance claim.
ALSO GROWS
yores: An heir or inheritor.
יוֹרֵשׁ
Genesis 15:3 uses this form when Abram calls the child born in his house his heir, linking this verse to an earlier claim about who will receive the inheritance.
morashah: An inherited possession or holding.
מוֹרָשָׁה
This branch makes inheritance concrete: it concerns who receives a possession, not only who is called family.
horish: To cause someone to lose possession or be displaced.
הוֹרִישׁ
The causative form reveals the other side of the inheritance boundary: one person’s possession can be established by dispossessing another.
גָּרֵשׁ
garesh
GROWS FROM
גרש
G-R-Sh
To drive out or expel.
“cast out” in this verse is garesh. This is a direct command to expel, not a vague separation. The same root-family also names a woman put away in divorce, so the word carries the force of a household rupture that reaches mother and child together.
ALSO GROWS
gerushah: A woman who has been put away in divorce.
גְּרוּשָׁה
This branch shows that the root can describe a formal severing of a household bond, sharpening the force of the order here.
gerush: The act of driving out or putting away.
גֵּרוּשׁ
The noun keeps the command’s force visible: the separation is an act imposed on Hagar and her son.
THE PATTERN
An heir is defined by both the share granted and the boundary drawn around that share.
And Abraham gave all that he had unto Isaac.But unto the sons of the concubines, which Abraham had, Abraham gave gifts, and sent them away from Isaac his son, while he yet lived, eastward, unto the east country.Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.THE THREAD
And Abram said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed: and, lo, one born in my house is mine heir.Abram’s word for “heir” is יוֹרֵשׁ (yores), from ירש (Y-R-Sh, possess or inherit), the same root used here. In Genesis 15:3 Abram names a household-born heir; this verse uses that same root as Sarah refuses the bondwoman’s son a share with Isaac.
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