What Does Genesis 34:7 Mean in the King James?
And the sons of Jacob came out of the field when they heard it: and the men were grieved, and they were very wroth, because he had wrought folly in Israel in lying with Jacob’s daughter; which thing ought not to be done.
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 names sexual violation as a withering of moral character, placing it in public view as a wrong rather than a private misstep.
THE MEANING
Harm done to a person is named here as a wrong that does not become private simply because it happens to one person. Dinah’s violation brings grief and anger, and the closing words say plainly that this must not be done. The sentence holds the wrong and the response to it together.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that sexual violation is a private misunderstanding that can be overlooked breaks here: the act is named as a disgrace and explicitly forbidden.
THE ROOT
נְבָלָה
nevalah
GROWS FROM
נבל
To wither; in this word family, to become foolish or morally base.
Here נְבָלָה (nevalah, disgraceful folly) names Shechem’s act as moral collapse, not a lapse in judgment. The family includes words for a fool and for what withers, linking the act with what is debased and life-faded.
ALSO GROWS
naval: A fool; a morally senseless or base person.
נָבָל
This branch shows that the root can name moral dullness, giving “folly” a weight beyond poor judgment.
navel: To wither or fade.
נָבֵל
This branch reveals the root’s withering sense alongside the verse’s word for disgraceful conduct.
וַיִּתְעַצְּבוּ
vayyit'atzevu
GROWS FROM
עצב
To hurt, grieve, or cause pain.
“grieved” in this verse is vayyit'atzevu. The verb for the brothers’ grief belongs to a family that also names pain and sorrow. Their response is presented as felt injury as well as judgment: grief stands before the verse’s burning anger.
ALSO GROWS
etsev: Pain or sorrow.
עֶצֶב
This noun makes the root’s pain-sense visible in the brothers’ grief.
itsavon: Painful toil or sorrow.
עִצָּבוֹן
This related form carries the same root into enduring pain, deepening the force of “grieved.”
THE PATTERN
Sexual violation is named as a grave wrong whose burden belongs to the violator, not the person harmed.
But unto the damsel thou shalt do nothing; there is in the damsel no sin worthy of death: for as when a man riseth against his neighbour, and slayeth him, even so is this matter:And she answered him, Nay, my brother, do not force me; for no such thing ought to be done in Israel: do not thou this folly.That no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter: because that the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also have forewarned you and testified.THE THREAD
And she answered him, Nay, my brother, do not force me; for no such thing ought to be done in Israel: do not thou this folly.Tamar uses the same Hebrew word נְבָלָה (nevalah, disgraceful folly) and repeats the declaration that such a thing must not be done in Israel. The shared word puts a woman’s own refusal at the center of the same language of outrage.
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