What Does Genesis 30:26 Mean in the King James?
Give me my wives and my children, for whom I have served thee, and let me go: for thou knowest my service which I have done thee.
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
Jacob places the family bound up in his service inside the same request as his freedom to go.
THE MEANING
Work you give another person does not erase the life joined to that work. You can name the people you carry forward and the labor you have given; both belong in the same account. The request to leave remains audible even when your service is fully known.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the belief that serving someone gives them an unlimited claim on your life.
THE ROOT
עֲבֹדָתִי
ʿavodati
GROWS FROM
עבד
ʿ-b-d
To work, serve, or labor in relation to another.
The verb for Jacob’s service and the noun for the service Laban knows come from the same root. Its branches keep the labor, the act of serving, and the person who serves close together, so the line names both Jacob’s work and the relation that shaped his life.
ALSO GROWS
ʿāvad: To work, serve, or labor.
עָבַד
This is the verb used for Jacob’s work; it ties the service he performed to the service Laban knows.
ʿeved: A servant or worker.
עֶבֶד
This branch names the person within the service relationship, keeping the worker visible alongside the work.
ʿavodah: Work, labor, or service.
עֲבוֹדָה
This noun shares the root of Jacob’s “service,” joining the work itself to the repeated act of serving.
THE PATTERN
Service can be bound to a particular relation or season, while release can open a different form of service.
And Jacob served seven years for Rachel; and they seemed unto him but a few days, for the love he had to her.And if thy brother, an Hebrew man, or an Hebrew woman, be sold unto thee, and serve thee six years; then in the seventh year thou shalt let him go free from thee.For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.THE THREAD
And Jacob served seven years for Rachel; and they seemed unto him but a few days, for the love he had to her.This earlier verse uses the same Hebrew root, עבד, for Jacob’s service. Genesis 30:26 gathers that labor into his request to go with the family formed within it.
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