What Does Genesis 30:16 Mean in the King James?
And Jacob came out of the field in the evening, and Leah went out to meet him, and said, Thou must come in unto me; for surely I have hired thee with my son’s mandrakes. And he lay with her that night.
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 night is named as wages: the Hebrew root makes Leah’s “I have hired you” sound like a bargain already paid.
THE MEANING
You are shown a bargain named without disguise: the mandrakes are payment, and Jacob’s presence is what Leah says they purchase for the night. Intimacy stands inside an exchange, with desire and obligation joined in the same sentence.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse unsettles the assumption that a sexual encounter is necessarily framed as romance: here the spoken terms are payment and a claimed return.
THE ROOT
שְׂכַרְתִּיךָ
sekhartikha
GROWS FROM
שכר
To hire or pay wages; here, “I have hired you.”
The Hebrew repeats this root in the phrase שָׂכֹר שְׂכַרְתִּיךָ (sākhor sekhartikha), literally “hiring, I have hired you.” That doubled wording makes the exchange unmistakable: the mandrakes are named as payment for Jacob’s night with Leah.
ALSO GROWS
sakar: To hire or engage for wages.
שָׂכַר
The verb’s root is the one Leah uses to name her bargain.
sakar: Wages, pay, or reward.
שָׂכָר
This noun makes the payment beneath “I have hired you” explicit.
sakhir: A hired worker or hireling.
שָׂכִיר
This branch shows how the same root names the person whose service is purchased.
דּוּדָאִים
duda’im
GROWS FROM
דוד
Beloved; the plant name is commonly associated with this root, though its etymology is uncertain.
The mandrakes’ Hebrew name carries an echo of דוד (dod), “beloved,” a connection often drawn from the plant’s association with love. That possible echo places desire inside the bargain itself: what is named as payment also sounds like love.
ALSO GROWS
dod: Beloved; also uncle, depending on context.
דּוֹד
The shared sound links the mandrakes’ name with the language of being beloved.
dodim: Loves or caresses.
דּוֹדִים
This related word for love and caresses in Song of Songs gives the mandrakes’ name an erotic resonance.
THE PATTERN
When intimacy is expressed as an exchange, the relationship is framed through payment and obligation.
And Jacob loved Rachel; and said, I will serve thee seven years for Rachel thy younger daughter.So I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver, and for an homer of barley, and an half homer of barley:Let the husband render unto the wife due benevolence: and likewise also the wife unto the husband.THE THREAD
And Laban said unto Jacob, Because thou art my brother, shouldest thou therefore serve me for nought? tell me, what shall thy wages be?The same שכר (sakar), “hire; wages,” root frames Jacob’s service as paid labor in this earlier exchange. Here Leah applies that language to a night with Jacob, making the root’s movement from wages to intimacy visible.
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