What Does Genesis 34:6 Mean in the King James?
And Hamor the father of Shechem went out unto Jacob to commune with him.
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 behind “commune” also names a “matter,” so the meeting is framed as bringing something into speech.
THE MEANING
You meet this verse as one person goes toward another to speak about a matter. The words have not yet settled anything; the verse holds the encounter at its opening, where the matter enters speech.
THE ROOT
לְדַבֵּר
ledabber
GROWS FROM
דבר
d-b-r
To speak or declare; the related noun davar means a word, matter, or thing.
“commune” in this verse is ledabber. The Hebrew verb ledabber means “to speak,” while its root’s noun form davar can mean both “word” and “matter.” The verse thus holds the conversation and the matter being discussed in one word-family.
ALSO GROWS
davar: Word, matter, or thing
דָּבָר
The meeting is not only contact between two people; it is also a matter brought into words.
dibber: He spoke
דִּבֵּר
This verb form shows the same root as an act of speech between people, the purpose named in the verse.
THE PATTERN
Speech turns an approach into an encounter where a matter can be shared.
And the LORD went his way, as soon as he had left communing with Abraham: and Abraham returned unto his place.And the LORD spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend. And he turned again into the camp: but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, departed not out of the tabernacle.Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:THE THREAD
And the LORD went his way, as soon as he had left communing with Abraham: and Abraham returned unto his place.“Communing” here and “commune” in Genesis 34:6 both come from the Hebrew root דבר (d-b-r), speak. In one verse speech opens the meeting; in the other, it marks the meeting’s close.
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