What Does Genesis 3:9 Mean in the King James?
And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?
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 verse makes hiding a place that can be addressed: the ground-born human hears a call and is asked to locate himself.
THE MEANING
The voice reaches you in concealment and asks where you are. The question brings your position into speech: the human remains addressable even while hiding.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Hiding does not make you unreachable or place you beyond relationship.
THE ROOT
הָאָדָם
ha'adam
GROWS FROM
אדם
ʾ-d-m
Human, linked in Genesis to the ground from which the human is formed.
The Hebrew says הָאָדָם (ha’adam, “the human”), tying the one addressed to אֲדָמָה (adamah, “ground”). The question meets a ground-being in a real place, not an abstract self.
ALSO GROWS
adamah: Ground, soil.
אֲדָמָה
The shared root connects the human being addressed here with the ground from which the human is formed.
adom: Red.
אָדֹם
The shared consonants preserve a further sound-link between the human and redness, while the ground-connection carries the verse’s central insight.
וַיִּקְרָא
vayyiqra
GROWS FROM
קרא
q-r-ʾ
Call, summon, or proclaim; the same root also means to read aloud.
“called” in this verse is vayyiqra. This root joins a summons with spoken reading and proclamation. Here, the call is direct address: the human who hides is still being spoken to.
ALSO GROWS
qeri'ah: A calling or reading aloud.
קְרִיאָה
The call to Adam belongs to the same root as speech made audible.
miqra: A convocation or reading.
מִקְרָא
This branch links calling with gathering; the voice addresses someone who is apart and hidden.
THE PATTERN
A direct call reaches a person at a threshold and opens a response.
And when the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I.And the LORD came, and stood, and called as at other times, Samuel, Samuel. Then Samuel answered, Speak; for thy servant heareth.Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself, and saith unto him, Rabboni; which is to say, Master.THE THREAD
And when the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I.The same Hebrew root קרא (q-r-ʾ, “call”) describes God addressing Moses. Moses answers, “Here am I,” showing one way a call can draw a person into acknowledged presence.
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