What Does Genesis 3:18 Mean in the King James?
Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;
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
The field’s growth is not absent; it reaches you as food and resistance at once.
THE MEANING
The field yields both what feeds you and what pricks you. Nourishment remains present, but receiving it carries resistance and pain.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that pain means nothing is being provided dissolves here: food remains in the field even as thorns rise beside it.
THE ROOT
תַּצְמִיחַ
tatsmiach
GROWS FROM
צמח
Sprout or grow; in this form, cause to sprout.
“bring forth” in this verse is tatsmiach. The verb is the causative form of צמח (tsamach, “sprout” or “grow”): the field causes growth, but growth is not automatically food. The same root names צֶמַח (tsemach, “sprout” or “Branch”), holding thorn-growth and a branch under one seed without making their outcomes identical.
ALSO GROWS
tsemach: A sprout or growth; rendered “Branch” in Zechariah 3:8.
צֶמַח
The same root can name a branch brought forth, making its connection to this verse’s growth-word visible across different outcomes.
matsmiach: Causes to grow; Psalm 104:14 uses this form for grass growing for livestock.
מַצְמִיחַ
This causative form shows growth as something the ground brings about, while the root itself does not promise that every growth nourishes.
THE PATTERN
The same growing process can yield nourishment, obstruction, or both.
And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up, and choked it, and it yielded no fruit.But that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned.THE THREAD
Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, thou, and thy fellows that sit before thee: for they are men wondered at: for, behold, I will bring forth my servant the BRANCH.The verb תַּצְמִיחַ (tatsmiach, “causes to sprout”) comes from צמח (tsamach, “sprout” or “grow”); Zechariah calls the servant צֶמַח (tsemach, “Branch”), from the same root. The shared word holds growth itself, while the verses show it emerging in very different forms.
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