What Does Genesis 26:25 Mean in the King James?
And he builded an altar there, and called upon the name of the LORD, and pitched his tent there: and there Isaac’s servants digged a well.
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
Calling on the LORD’s nature becomes inhabitable: altar, tent, and well gather devotion, dwelling, and sustenance into one life.
THE MEANING
The LORD’s nature is present in the places where you meet, dwell, and draw sustenance. Devotion, shelter, and the work of finding water occupy the same ground. This verse gives rootedness a tangible shape: altar, tent, and well.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the belief that spiritual life belongs only to inward or spoken devotion, separate from shelter and the needs that sustain your body.
THE ROOT
וַיִּקְרָא
wayyiqra and he
GROWS FROM
קרא
q-r-ʾ
Call out, summon, or proclaim; the same verb can also mean to read aloud.
“called” in this verse is wayyiqra and he. The Hebrew verb carries more than the idea of a private appeal: it can name an audible proclamation. Joined to shem, “name” as nature, calling on the LORD’s name gives that nature voice in a place.
ALSO GROWS
miqra: A reading or a summoned gathering.
מִקְרָא
This branch shows how calling can become a spoken proclamation that shapes a place and the people in it.
qeri’ah: The act of calling out or reading aloud.
קְרִיאָה
The shared root keeps calling the LORD’s name connected to giving voice to what that name holds.
מִזְבֵּחַ
mizbeach altar
GROWS FROM
זבח
z-b-ḥ
Slaughter or sacrifice.
The Hebrew word for altar is formed from the root for slaughter or sacrifice, so the place itself carries that action in its name. The verse does not say an offering is made there, but its word for the altar keeps sacrifice in view beside the act of calling on the LORD.
ALSO GROWS
zevach: A slaughtered offering or sacrifice.
זֶבַח
It names the act associated with the altar Isaac builds.
zoveach: One who slaughters or offers a sacrifice.
זֹבֵחַ
This branch makes the altar’s word-family about an enacted offering, not only a sacred structure.
וַיֵּט
wayyet and he
GROWS FROM
נטה
n-ṭ-h
Stretch, extend, spread, or incline.
The verb translated “pitched” pictures the tent being spread out across the ground. The same root describes extending a hand or inclining an ear, so dwelling here carries a sense of reaching outward and taking up space.
ALSO GROWS
natah yad: To extend a hand outward.
נָטָה יָד
The tent is likewise extended outward over the ground, making a place to dwell.
natah ozen: To incline or turn the ear toward something.
נָטָה אֹזֶן
The root’s sense of extension also describes turning toward what is heard; the tent makes that orientation tangible as a place.
THE PATTERN
A life rooted in the LORD takes visible shape in devotion, dwelling, and a source of sustenance.
And he removed from thence unto a mountain on the east of Beth-el, and pitched his tent, having Beth-el on the west, and Hai on the east: and there he builded an altar unto the LORD, and called upon the name of the LORD.A Prayer of Moses the man of God. Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations.But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.THE THREAD
And he removed from thence unto a mountain on the east of Beth-el, and pitched his tent, having Beth-el on the west, and Hai on the east: and there he builded an altar unto the LORD, and called upon the name of the LORD.The same Hebrew verb קרא (qara, call or proclaim) appears with the same phrase, “called upon the name of the LORD,” surrounded by an altar and a tent. Genesis 26:25 extends that pattern to a well: devotion and dwelling share ground with the work of uncovering water.
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