What Does Genesis 30:34 Mean in the King James?
And Laban said, Behold, I would it might be according to thy word.
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 Hebrew word for “word” can also mean “matter”: Jacob’s speech is the very matter of the bargain Laban is weighing.
THE MEANING
Your spoken terms can become the shared measure of an exchange, while a verbal agreement can still leave the outcome open. Laban’s “I would it might” holds both together: he receives Jacob’s word and voices a wish about what may come to be.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A voiced agreement does not by itself mean the hoped-for outcome is already secured.
THE ROOT
דָּבָר
davar
GROWS FROM
דבר
To speak or utter.
English makes “word” sound like a phrase, but davar can name both an utterance and the matter or thing spoken of. Here Jacob’s word names the terms Laban considers, while “I would it might” leaves their fulfillment uncertain.
ALSO GROWS
dibber: He spoke; he uttered.
דִּבֶּר
This verbal form shows the word as an act of speaking, not a detached phrase.
devarim: Words; matters or things.
דְּבָרִים
The same word family can name speech or the matter at hand, linking Jacob’s proposal directly to the bargain being weighed.
THE PATTERN
Spoken words set terms and carry consequences into what follows.
Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth!THE THREAD
By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.Psalm 33 uses the same Hebrew root, דבר (davar), for the LORD’s word. The shared word-root brings speech and what takes shape through it into close view.
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