What Does Genesis 33:14 Mean in the King James?
Let my lord, I pray thee, pass over before his servant: and I will lead on softly, according as the cattle that goeth before me and the children be able to endure, until I come unto my lord unto Seir.
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 measures progress by the pace and strength of those who cannot match the strongest stride.
THE MEANING
The journey moves at the speed the cattle and children can bear. Your movement stays responsive to the strength of those traveling with you; gentleness is carried in the pace itself.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The leader’s pace must be the measure for everyone else.
THE ROOT
אֶתְנָהֲלָה
etnahalah
GROWS FROM
נהל
n-h-l
To lead, guide, or conduct along; here, to move oneself gently.
“lead” in this verse is etnahalah. This verb’s root appears in descriptions of being led beside still waters and of being gently led with young. English can separate gentleness from leading, while this root holds gentleness within the act of guiding.
ALSO GROWS
yenahaleni: He leads me.
יְנַהֲלֵנִי
The same root describes being led beside still waters, joining guidance with a pace that allows rest.
yenahal: He gently leads.
יְנַהֵל
Isaiah uses this form for leading those with young, echoing the care for children built into this verse’s pace.
לְרֶגֶל
leregel
GROWS FROM
רגל
r-g-l
Foot or step; movement measured by walking.
The Hebrew twice says “to the foot of” those traveling with Jacob: the cattle and the children. The English “according as” conceals this bodily measure, the journey follows the feet and pace of those moving along the road.
ALSO GROWS
ragal: To go about on foot; to reconnoiter or spy out.
רָגַל
This verb preserves the root’s link between feet and movement through a place, clarifying the verse’s concrete measure of pace.
regalim: Feet; also the three pilgrimage festivals.
רְגָלִים
The word for the pilgrimage festivals carries the foot and journey sense of this root, keeping travel bound to actual steps.
THE PATTERN
Those who lead well set the pace by the capacity of the vulnerable traveling with them.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young.We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves.THE THREAD
He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young.“Gently lead” in Isaiah uses the same Hebrew root נהל as “lead on softly” here. In both verses, the act of leading makes room for those whose pace is shaped by their young.
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