What Does Genesis 29:24 Mean in the King James?
And Laban gave unto his daughter Leah Zilpah his maid for an handmaid.
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
What looks like a gift is also an assignment: Laban gives Leah a servant, placing Zilpah in a role chosen by someone else.
THE MEANING
Laban assigns Zilpah to Leah as a maid; household power determines where Zilpah belongs. Her placement becomes part of the family story, though her own choice is not named. The verse keeps both the consequence of that placement and its unequal terms in view.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Being given a place does not mean a person chose it; the arrangement can serve the giver’s authority more than the person transferred.
THE ROOT
וַיִּתֵּן
wayyitten
GROWS FROM
נתן
n-t-n
To give, set, or place.
“gave” in this verse is wayyitten. The verb נתן (natan, to give, set, place) can name more than a gift: it can place someone into a role determined by another. Here, the person being given is a servant, so the act carries the force of household authority.
ALSO GROWS
nethinim: The given ones; temple servants.
נְתִינִים
This branch connects being given with being assigned to a service, making the role-setting force of the root visible.
mattanah: Gift; something given.
מַתָּנָה
This familiar gift-word shares the root, while the verse shows that what is given can be a person placed into a role chosen by someone else.
THE PATTERN
Giving can function as placement, assigning a person a role within another person’s household.
And Sarai Abram’s wife took Hagar her maid the Egyptian, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife.When Leah saw that she had left bearing, she took Zilpah her maid, and gave her Jacob to wife.If his master have given him a wife, and she have born him sons or daughters; the wife and her children shall be her master’s, and he shall go out by himself.THE THREAD
When Leah saw that she had left bearing, she took Zilpah her maid, and gave her Jacob to wife.The same root נתן (natan, to give, set, place) describes Leah’s later act toward Zilpah. Its repetition shows the transfer here opening into another household decision: Zilpah’s assigned place continues to shape the family story.
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