What Does Genesis 21:34 Mean in the King James?
And Abraham sojourned in the Philistines’ land many days.
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
Sojourning names a way to dwell for many days without turning presence into possession.
THE MEANING
You can inhabit a place for a long time without that place becoming your possession or final belonging. Sojourning holds genuine presence and unsettled belonging together.
THE ROOT
וַיָּגָר
wayyāgor
GROWS FROM
גוּר
gûr
To reside as a sojourner or newcomer.
“sojourned” in this verse is wayyāgor. The verb comes from גוּר (gûr), to reside as a sojourner. Its word-family holds dwelling and outsider status together: a long stay does not, by itself, turn presence into possession.
ALSO GROWS
gēr: A sojourner or resident stranger.
גֵּר
The noun makes visible the status held within the verb: someone can dwell among others without being native to the place.
megūrîm: Sojournings or places of residence.
מְגוּרִים
This related form keeps the idea of dwelling while retaining the sense of temporary or non-native residence.
THE PATTERN
A person can dwell in a place while remaining a sojourner there.
I am a stranger and a sojourner with you: give me a possession of a buryingplace with you, that I may bury my dead out of my sight.By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise:Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;THE THREAD
I am a stranger and a sojourner with you: give me a possession of a buryingplace with you, that I may bury my dead out of my sight.The Hebrew גֵּר (gēr, sojourner) in Abraham’s later words comes from the same root, גוּר (gûr, to sojourn), as “sojourned” here. This verse names a way of dwelling; the later verse gives that dwelling its name.
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