What Does Genesis 21:24 Mean in the King James?
And Abraham said, I will swear.
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 Hebrew for swearing shares its consonants with “seven,” and the oath in this scene is marked by seven ewe lambs.
THE MEANING
A commitment becomes public when the speaker places it under oath. The pledge carries the weight of accountability before God.
THE ROOT
אִשָּׁבֵעַ
ʾiššāvēaʿ
GROWS FROM
שׁבע
To swear, binding oneself by an oath.
The verb’s root has the same consonants as the Hebrew word for “seven.” In the surrounding scene, seven ewe lambs mark the well where the two men swear, joining the oath to the number in a concrete wordplay.
ALSO GROWS
shevuʿah: Oath
שְׁבוּעָה
This noun grows from the same root and makes explicit the binding pledge carried by “I will swear.”
shevaʿ: Seven
שֶׁבַע
It shares the oath root’s consonants; the seven ewe lambs nearby make that echo visible in the scene.
Be'er Sheva: Beersheba; “well of seven” or “well of the oath”
בְּאֵר שֶׁבַע
The place-name holds the scene’s two linked ideas together: seven and the oath sworn there.
THE PATTERN
A spoken oath gives a commitment a publicly marked, binding form.
Wherefore he called that place Beer-sheba; because there they sware both of them.I have made a covenant with my chosen, I have sworn unto David my servant,For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself,THE THREAD
Wherefore he called that place Beer-sheba; because there they sware both of them.“Sware” comes from the Hebrew root שׁבע, whose consonants also appear in שֶׁבַע, “seven.” The seven ewe lambs in the surrounding scene make the sound-link tangible: the oath and the seven meet at Beersheba.
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