What Does Genesis 28:10 Mean in the King James?
And Jacob went out from Beer-sheba, and went toward Haran.
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
Hebrew marks an exit and an onward path separately: leaving the well of oath is the threshold, while going toward Haran is the journey.
THE MEANING
This verse meets you in the interval between a familiar source and the road ahead. Jacob leaves Beer-sheba, a name joined to the senses of well, seven, and oath, and continues toward Haran. Leaving and continuing are distinct movements, yet both belong to one journey.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that leaving means being aimless dissolves here: the departure and its direction appear together.
THE ROOT
וַיֵּצֵא
wayyēṣēʾ from yatsa
GROWS FROM
יצא
y-ṣ-ʾ
Go out, come forth, emerge.
“went out” in this verse is wayyēṣēʾ from yatsa. This root holds departure and emergence together. The following verb shows that what begins as an exit continues into a path.
ALSO GROWS
motsa: A going out, source, or point of departure.
מוֹצָא
The root can name both the act of leaving and the source from which something emerges, keeping Jacob’s departure bound to its starting place.
totza'ah: An outcome or result; what comes out of something.
תּוֹצָאָה
The same root can describe what emerges from a process, giving departure the sense of an opening into what follows.
וַיֵּלֶךְ
wayyelekh from halakh
GROWS FROM
הלך
h-l-k
Go, walk, proceed.
“went toward” in this verse is wayyelekh from halakh. The first verb names coming out; this one names going on. Hebrew holds departure and continued movement together, making the exit a threshold rather than the whole journey.
ALSO GROWS
holekh: One who goes or walks.
הוֹלֵךְ
This form keeps the focus on a person in motion, as Jacob is after leaving Beer-sheba.
halikhah: Walking, going, or a course of movement.
הֲלִיכָה
This noun can name the continuing course that follows the initial act of leaving.
בְּאֵר שָׁבַע
Be'er Shevaʿ
GROWS FROM
שבע
sh-b-ʿ
The consonants carry the biblical wordplay between seven and swearing an oath.
Beer-sheba means “well of seven” and also evokes “well of oath”; Genesis 21:31 makes the oath-sense explicit through the two men’s swearing. Jacob’s departure begins from a named source where the well and the pledged word are joined.
ALSO GROWS
sheva: Seven.
שֶׁבַע
This is one sense carried in the place-name Beer-sheba, often understood as “well of seven.”
shavaʿ: Swear or take an oath.
שָׁבַע
Genesis 21:31 connects the name Beer-sheba with the oath sworn there, placing that sense at the beginning of Jacob’s journey.
THE PATTERN
A journey is marked by both its point of departure and the direction it takes.
Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee:Jesus answered and said unto them, Though I bear record of myself, yet my record is true: for I know whence I came, and whither I go; but ye cannot tell whence I come, and whither I go.And after the uproar was ceased, Paul called unto him the disciples, and embraced them, and departed for to go into Macedonia.THE THREAD
The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.“Going out” comes from יָצָא (yatsa, go out or come forth), the same root that describes Jacob’s exit. Psalm 121 holds both going out and coming in within the LORD’s keeping, opening this single departure into the wider pattern of life’s transitions.
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