What Does Genesis 34:17 Mean in the King James?
But if ye will not hearken unto us, to be circumcised; then will we take our daughter, and we will be gone.
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 sentence makes “hearken” bodily, specifying circumcision as the response that determines whether the speakers depart.
THE MEANING
You meet a demand with its consequence made explicit: the addressees must accept circumcision, or the daughter is taken back and the speakers leave. The verse holds a demand made on the body and the threat of separation together.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that refusal leaves the arrangement intact: the sentence names taking the daughter and leaving as the consequence.
THE ROOT
תִּשְׁמְעוּ
tishme'u
GROWS FROM
שמע
shamaʿ
hear, listen, attend; here, hear and respond
“hearken” in this verse is tishme'u. The verb reaches beyond sound entering the ear: the sentence makes hearing the beginning of a demanded response. The next phrase names that response as undergoing circumcision, joining listening to a bodily act.
ALSO GROWS
shemaʿ: hear; hear and respond
שְׁמַע
This command form shows how hearing can carry a response within it, as the demand does here.
shemuʿah: report, tidings
שְׁמוּעָה
This branch names what is heard and conveyed, showing the root’s reach from reception to communication.
לְהִמּוֹל
le-himmol
GROWS FROM
מול
mul
circumcise, remove the foreskin
“to be circumcised” in this verse is le-himmol. The passive infinitive places the addressees under a bodily act: they are to undergo circumcision. The root keeps the demand concrete, with a physical mark at the center of the condition.
ALSO GROWS
mul: circumcise
מוּל
The verb names the act required by the condition.
milah: circumcision
מִילָה
The noun names the bodily rite at stake in the demand.
וְהָלָכְנוּ
vehalaknu
GROWS FROM
הלך
halakh
go, walk
“gone” in this verse is vehalaknu. The Hebrew uses a movement verb: “we will go.” The closing clause makes separation an active departure, rather than leaving it as a vague state of absence.
ALSO GROWS
halakh: go, walk
הָלַךְ
This verb supplies the motion behind the speakers’ stated departure.
halikhah: going, walking
הֲלִיכָה
This noun keeps the same root’s sense of movement visible in the verse’s final action.
THE PATTERN
Scripture treats hearing as a responsive act whose truth is shown by what follows.
Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:THE THREAD
Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine:The verb rendered “obey” is שָׁמַע (shamaʿ, hear and respond), the same root rendered “hearken” in Genesis 34:17. The shared root makes hearing carry a response; here that response is circumcision, and refusal means departure.
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