What Does Genesis 25:21 Mean in the King James?
And Isaac intreated the LORD for his wife, because she was barren: and the LORD was intreated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived.
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 same Hebrew root names both Isaac’s pleading and the LORD’s being entreated, joining the petition and its answer in one verbal seed.
THE MEANING
This verse speaks to longing that seems closed: Isaac pleads, the LORD answers, and Rebekah conceives. Its movement is from barrenness toward life, with the change following the LORD’s response.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that this barrenness has the final word is undone here: the verse ends with Rebekah conceiving.
THE ROOT
וַיֶּעְתַּר
wayyeʿtar
GROWS FROM
ע־ת־ר
ʿ-t-r
Entreat, make supplication; in a passive form, be entreated.
“intreated” in this verse is wayyeʿtar. The verb shifts from Isaac pleading to the LORD being entreated, but both forms keep the root עתר. The petition and its reception share one verbal seed.
ALSO GROWS
wayyeʿtar: He pleaded or made supplication.
וַיֶּעְתַּר
This is Isaac’s action in the verse: he brings his longing before the LORD.
wayyēʿāṯēr: He was entreated; the plea was received.
וַיֵּעָתֵר
This is the LORD’s response in the verse, formed from the same root as Isaac’s plea.
עֲקָרָה
ʿăqārāh
GROWS FROM
ע־ק־ר
ʿ-q-r
Uproot; the related form also means barren.
The Hebrew word for a barren woman shares its root with uprooting. That root adds the image of life without fruit, which makes the verse’s turn to conception especially vivid.
ALSO GROWS
ʿāqar: To uproot or pull up.
עָקַר
This root sense sits beneath the word for barrenness and gives it an image of what has been uprooted.
ʿăqārāh: A barren woman.
עֲקָרָה
This is the form used for Rebekah; the verse then moves from this condition to conception.
יִצְחָק
Yitzḥaq
GROWS FROM
צ־ח־ק
ṣ-ḥ-q
Laugh.
Isaac’s Hebrew name carries the root for laughter. The man pleading here bears laughter in his name while facing an unfulfilled longing.
ALSO GROWS
ṣāḥaq: To laugh.
צָחַק
This verb is the root from which Isaac’s name is formed.
ṣeḥōq: Laughter.
צְחוֹק
This noun makes the meaning carried in Isaac’s name visible as a word in its own right.
THE PATTERN
A plea is shown as movement toward hearing and response, rather than as an isolated utterance.
I sought the LORD, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared;THE THREAD
And prayed unto him: and he was intreated of him, and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD he was God.This verse repeats the עתר root in the phrase “he was intreated,” linking the plea’s reception to the same root found in Genesis 25:21. In both verses, the petitioner’s appeal and the LORD’s response are marked by that shared verbal seed.
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