What Does Genesis 33:6 Mean in the King James?
Then the handmaidens came near, they and their children, and they bowed themselves.
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
Here, coming near becomes visible in the body: the women and children approach, then bow.
THE MEANING
The verse shows you a movement from distance into relation: you come near, and the body can express recognition through a bow. The gesture carries what speech has not yet said.
THE ROOT
וַתִּשְׁתַּחֲוֶיןָ
vatish'tachaveynah
GROWS FROM
שחה
To bow low or prostrate oneself.
“bowed themselves” in this verse is vatish'tachaveynah. This verb gives the gesture a physical shape: the body lowers before another. The same root can describe bowing in homage, so the action holds both posture and expressed regard.
ALSO GROWS
shachah: To lower oneself or prostrate oneself.
שָׁחָה
This is the root verb behind the gesture in the verse.
hishtachavah: To bow or prostrate oneself before another.
הִשְׁתַּחֲוָה
This form makes the body’s own lowering explicit, giving the gesture its force.
וַתִּגַּשְׁןָ
vattiggashnah
GROWS FROM
נגש
To draw near or approach.
“came near” in this verse is vattiggashnah. The verse sets approaching beside bowing: the women and children close the distance, and their bodies show the relation they have entered. The root can also describe bringing something near or presenting it, extending approach into an act of placing something before another.
ALSO GROWS
nagash: To draw near or come close.
נָגַשׁ
This is the movement that begins the verse’s shift from distance to presence.
higgish: To cause something to approach or place it before someone.
הִגִּישׁ
This branch reveals how nearness can become a deliberate presentation before another.
THE PATTERN
Recognition becomes visible when the body lowers itself before another.
And he passed over before them, and bowed himself to the ground seven times, until he came near to his brother.O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker.That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;THE THREAD
And he passed over before them, and bowed himself to the ground seven times, until he came near to his brother.The same Hebrew root for bowing appears in both verses, echoing Jacob’s gesture in the women and children’s. Genesis 33:3 also pairs bowing with drawing near, joining the two movements that shape this verse.
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