What Does Genesis 24:9 Mean in the King James?
And the servant put his hand under the thigh of Abraham his master, and sware to him concerning that matter.
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 swore echoes seven, a sound that Genesis joins to oath and witness at Beersheba.
THE MEANING
A binding promise is not weightless speech: it enters the body and is tied to a particular matter. The person making it is bound in relation to another and to the task entrusted to him.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that a promise is only words spoken inwardly: here the vow is enacted through the body and attached to a concrete matter.
THE ROOT
וַיִּשָּׁבַע
wayyiššāḇaʿ
GROWS FROM
שׁבע
sh-b-ʿ
To swear an oath; the same consonants also form the word for seven.
“sware” in this verse is wayyiššāḇaʿ. The Hebrew verb echoes שֶׁבַע, sheva, meaning seven. Genesis makes that sound-link vivid at Beersheba, where an oath and seven lambs mark a pledge as witnessed and concrete.
ALSO GROWS
shevuʿah: Oath
שְׁבוּעָה
This noun from the same root makes clear that the servant’s act is a binding pledge.
sheva: Seven
שֶׁבַע
The shared consonants echo Genesis’s Beersheba scene, where seven lambs and an oath are joined as witness.
הַדָּבָר
ha-dāḇār
GROWS FROM
דבר
d-b-r
To speak or utter; דָּבָר, davar, can mean a word, thing, or matter.
The phrase is literally about this davar, this word or matter. Hebrew joins spoken commitment to the concrete thing entrusted, so the oath binds speech to an actual responsibility.
ALSO GROWS
davar: Word, thing, or matter
דָּבָר
It is the word translated matter here, holding speech and the concrete issue together.
dibber: He spoke
דִּבֶּר
This verb from the same root shows the speech inside davar: the oath gives spoken commitment to the matter.
THE PATTERN
A pledge becomes a witness when spoken commitment is bound to a concrete matter and held in relationship.
Wherefore he called that place Beer-sheba; because there they sware both of them.And Jonathan caused David to swear again, because he loved him: for he loved him as he loved his own soul.For men verily swear by the greater: and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife.THE THREAD
Wherefore he called that place Beer-sheba; because there they sware both of them.Here the oath verb echoes sheva, seven, in the name Beersheba. The surrounding scene also marks the agreement with seven lambs, joining pledged speech to a visible witness.
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