What Does Genesis 27:46 Mean in the King James?
And Rebekah said to Isaac, I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth: if Jacob take a wife of the daughters of Heth, such as these which are of the daughters of the land, what good shall my life do 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
Isaac’s name, יִצְחָק (Yitzḥaq, “he laughs”), stands beside two forms of חיה (ḥāyâ, “to live, be alive”), so laughter and life’s unbearable narrowing occupy the same sentence.
THE MEANING
A feared future can narrow the present until life itself becomes a question: if Jacob’s marriage brings into your household what you cannot bear, what can your own life still mean? This verse holds that anguish at full force without resolving it.
THE ROOT
חַיַּי
ḥayyai
GROWS FROM
חיה
ḥ-y-h (ḥāyâ): to live, be alive, revive.
The verse says חַיַּי (ḥayyai, “my life”) and then חַיִּים (ḥayyim, “life”), both from חיה (ḥāyâ, “to live, be alive”). The same root describes a חַיָּה (ḥayyāh, “living creature”), keeping Rebekah’s question attached to the reality of living, not just an abstract idea of life.
ALSO GROWS
ḥayyim: life; lives
חַיִּים
This is the second life-word in the verse, making the question turn on what life can still mean to her.
ḥayyāh: living creature; living one
חַיָּה
In Genesis 2:7 this root describes a living being, keeping the idea of life concrete.
יִצְחָק
Yitzḥaq
GROWS FROM
צחק
ṣ-ḥ-q (ṣāḥaq): to laugh, play.
Isaac’s name grows from צחק (ṣ-ḥ-q, “to laugh”). The name places laughter inside a sentence where life feels unbearable, holding a countercurrent without erasing the anguish.
ALSO GROWS
ṣĕḥōq: laughter
צְחוֹק
This noun shares the name’s root and makes the laughter carried by Isaac’s name explicit.
mĕṣaḥēq: laughing; playing
מְצַחֵק
This form shows the root describing laughter in motion as well as in a name.
THE PATTERN
When an unbearable future closes in, the felt meaning of life itself becomes a question.
And when Rachel saw that she bare Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister; and said unto Jacob, Give me children, or else I die.Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery, and life unto the bitter in soul;For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life: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.Genesis 2:7 uses חַיִּים (ḥayyim, “life”) and חַיָּה (ḥayyāh, “living”), both from חיה (ḥāyâ, “to live, be alive”). That shared root makes the connection audible: here the question repeats the word for life while asking what life can still be to her.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us