What Does Genesis 33:7 Mean in the King James?

And Leah also with her children came near, and bowed themselves: and after came Joseph near and Rachel, and they bowed themselves.

Genesis 33:7 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

The same act of bowing gives both family lines equal visibility while preserving the order in which they arrive.

THE MEANING

The verse keeps two family groups distinct and fully present: Leah comes with her children, then Joseph and Rachel, and each group bows. The repeated gesture lets their differences remain visible while giving both groups the same bodily posture.

THE ROOT

וַיִּשְׁתַּחֲווּ

wayyishtachavu

GROWS FROM

שחה

shachah

To bow down, bend low, or prostrate oneself.

“bowed themselves” in this verse is wayyishtachavu. The verb is reflexive: they lower their own bodies. The same root describes both Leah’s group and Joseph and Rachel, placing each household in the same visible posture.

ALSO GROWS

shachah: To bow down or bend low.

שָׁחָה

The base verb makes the action a bodily lowering before another.

hishtachavah: To bow oneself or prostrate oneself.

הִשְׁתַּחֲוָה

This reflexive form names the body’s own act of lowering, as in “bowed themselves.”

יוֹסֵף

Yosef

GROWS FROM

יסף

yasaf

To add, increase, or continue.

Joseph’s name carries the root ⁨יסף⁩ (yasaf), meaning “add” or “increase.” His household arrives after Leah’s, so the name echoes the sequence as another family group comes forward.

ALSO GROWS

yasaf: To add, increase, or continue.

יָסַף

This basic verb gives Joseph’s name its sense of adding.

hosif: To add or cause to increase.

הוֹסִיף

This form carries the same root into the verse’s sense of one group following another.

THE PATTERN

An encounter becomes visible in the body through the act of bowing down.

And he lift up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood by him: and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself toward the ground,

Genesis 18:2 · KJVAbraham runs to meet the visitors and lowers himself toward the ground, making the encounter visible in his posture.

And Moses made haste, and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshipped.

Exodus 34:8 · KJVMoses answers the encounter by bowing his head and body toward the earth.

And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh.

Matthew 2:11 · KJVThe visitors fall down before the child, again making their response visible through a lowered body.

THE THREAD

And Moses made haste, and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshipped.

Exodus 34:8 · KJV

The Hebrew verb rendered “bowed” comes from the same root ⁨שחה⁩ (shachah), meaning “to bow down,” as the action in Genesis 33:7. Its return in Moses’s posture shows the same physical gesture across different encounters.

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