What Does Genesis 29:9 Mean in the King James?

And while he yet spake with them, Rachel came with her father’s sheep: for she kept them.

Genesis 29:9 · KJV

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 the verse calls “keeping” is the work of shepherding: Rachel is tending and feeding life.

THE MEANING

Care is active tending: life is sustained through attention to what has been entrusted to you. The verse brings this work into view in the ordinary act of watching over a flock.

THE ROOT

רֹעָה

ro'ah

GROWS FROM

רעה

ra'ah

To tend, shepherd, or feed

Rachel’s word is the feminine form of the root for tending or shepherding, so “kept” carries the action of caring for and feeding a flock. The same root names a shepherd and a pasture, joining caretaker, action, and nourishment in one word family.

ALSO GROWS

ro'eh: Shepherd; one who tends a flock

רֹעֶה

This form names the same active tending Rachel performs, showing that the root describes care as an ongoing action.

mir'eh: Pasture; grazing place

מִרְעֶה

The pasture is where the flock is fed, revealing that shepherding includes making provision for life to continue.

THE PATTERN

Life is sustained through active tending that watches over and feeds what is entrusted to it.

A Psalm of David. The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.

Psalm 23:1 · KJVThe same Hebrew root, ⁨רעה⁩ (ra’ah), meaning “to shepherd or tend,” presents care as the source of provision.

I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.

John 10:11 · KJVThe shepherd’s care is expressed through active protection and self-giving for the flock.

Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind;

1 Peter 5:2 · KJVFeeding and watching over the flock appear together as the work of attentive care.

THE THREAD

A Psalm of David. The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.

Psalm 23:1 · KJV

The shepherd in Psalm 23:1 is ⁨רֹעִי⁩ (ro’i), “my shepherd,” from the same root ⁨רעה⁩ (ra’ah), “to tend or shepherd,” as Rachel’s work. The shared root connects her tending of the flock with the image of care that provides.

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