What Does Genesis 25:25 Mean in the King James?
And the first came out red, all over like an hairy garment; and they called his name Esau.
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 word for red (אֲדְמוֹנִי, ʾadmoni, ruddy) shares its root family with “human” and “ground,” letting Esau’s first color echo the earth-born human story.
THE MEANING
You see a person’s visible form before you can read the whole of them, and a name can gather the features that first announce their story. Here, red (אֲדְמוֹנִי, ʾadmoni, ruddy) echoes אָדָם (adam, human) and אֲדָמָה (adamah, ground), joining Esau’s body to the earth-born human image. That naming opens a story; it does not exhaust a person.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A name is only a label, unrelated to the life it names.
THE ROOT
אֲדְמוֹנִי
ʾadmoni
GROWS FROM
א־ד־ם
ʾ-d-m
The word family carries the sense of redness and also names the human and the ground.
English presents Esau’s color as a physical detail, while Hebrew lets it echo the אָדָם (adam, human)–אֲדָמָה (adamah, ground) bond. That same root family also gives אֱדוֹם (Edom, red), the name later attached to Esau.
ALSO GROWS
adam: human being, person
אָדָם
The shared root lets Esau’s redness resonate with the human being’s name.
adamah: ground, soil
אֲדָמָה
This branch brings the red description into the earth-born human story.
Edom: red
אֱדוֹם
Esau’s red appearance echoes the name Edom given to him in Genesis 25:30.
THE PATTERN
A name can gather a visible or promised quality into a person’s identity.
And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.And Esau said to Jacob, Feed me, I pray thee, with that same red pottage; for I am faint: therefore was his name called Edom.And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.THE THREAD
And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.Red (אֲדְמוֹנִי, ʾadmoni, ruddy) belongs to the same consonantal family as אָדָם (adam, human) and אֲדָמָה (adamah, ground). Genesis 2:7 makes that earth–human connection explicit, so the color in this verse echoes the larger human story carried by the root.
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