What Does Genesis 21:6 Mean in the King James?
And Sarah said, God hath made me to laugh, so that all that hear will laugh with me.
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
Sarah’s laughter and her son’s name grow from the same Hebrew root, turning her private astonishment into something everyone can share.
THE MEANING
What once seems impossible can become the very thing that opens laughter between you and the people around you. Sarah’s joy moves from within her into the open, where everyone who hears can share it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Laughter at what seems impossible does not have to remain disbelief; it can become joy shared with others.
THE ROOT
צְחֹק
tzĕḥōq
GROWS FROM
צחק
to laugh
“laugh” in this verse is tzĕḥōq. English gives you a word for laughter and a separate name, but Hebrew keeps both in צחק: Sarah’s laughter and Yitzchak’s name grow from the same root. Her laughter becomes more than a reaction; it is carried in her son’s name and opens into the laughter of everyone who hears.
ALSO GROWS
Yitzchak: Isaac; the name means “he laughs” or “he will laugh.”
יִצְחָק
The child’s name carries Sarah’s laughter forward, linking the birth to the joy she voices here.
tsechoq: laughter
צְחֹק
This noun names the laughter God makes for Sarah, the same laughter that becomes shared in the next phrase.
THE PATTERN
Laughter can mark both what first seems impossible and the joy that follows when the impossible gives way.
Therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying, After I am waxed old shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing: then said they among the heathen, The LORD hath done great things for them.Blessed are ye that hunger now: for ye shall be filled. Blessed are ye that weep now: for ye shall laugh.THE THREAD
Therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying, After I am waxed old shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?Sarah’s laughter here echoes the same root, צחק (tzachaq, to laugh), when she laughs within herself. The root’s movement from inward laughter to laughter shared with others lets you hear how her private response opens outward.
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