What Does Genesis 35:12 Mean in the King James?
And the land which I gave Abraham and Isaac, to thee I will give it, and to thy seed after thee will I give the land.
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 promise passes through a line of people: the same land is given to Abraham and Isaac, to Jacob, and to the seed after him.
THE MEANING
You hear a promise whose reach extends beyond its first recipients: the land given to Abraham and Isaac is now given to Jacob and his descendants. The repeated gift holds what one generation receives together with those who follow.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that an inheritance ends with its first recipient: here the gift continues through Jacob to those after him.
THE ROOT
זֶרַע
zeraʿ
GROWS FROM
זרע
To sow; seed and offspring.
The Hebrew word זֶרַע (zeraʿ, seed or offspring) holds a planted seed and a line of descendants in one word. The promise names the land not only for Jacob, but for the living line that follows him.
ALSO GROWS
zaraʿ: To sow.
זָרַע
The verb shows seed as something planted and carried into what comes next.
zeraʿ: Seed; offspring or descendants.
זֶרַע
The same word names both seed and the people who continue the family line.
נָתַן
natan
GROWS FROM
נתן
To give, set, or place.
The Hebrew uses the same root נתן (natan, give or place) for what is given to Abraham and Isaac, to Jacob, and to Jacob’s seed. The repeated root holds the inheritance together as one promise extending across generations.
ALSO GROWS
natan: To give, set, or place.
נָתַן
This root appears in each act of giving in the verse, linking its past and future recipients.
mattan: A gift.
מַתָּן
The related noun makes clear that giving and the gift itself belong to the same word family.
יִצְחָק
Yitzḥaq
GROWS FROM
צחק
To laugh.
Isaac’s name carries laughter into the list of people through whom the land passes. The promise’s family line includes a nature named by laughter, alongside its inheritance.
ALSO GROWS
tsāḥaq: To laugh.
צָחַק
This verb supplies the root carried in Isaac’s name.
tseḥoq: Laughter.
צְחוֹק
This noun makes the name’s root meaning explicit as laughter.
THE PATTERN
A promise received by one generation can continue as an inheritance for those who follow.
And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.The righteous shall inherit the land, and dwell therein for ever.By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise:THE THREAD
And, behold, the LORD stood above it, and said, I am the LORD God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed;The same root נתן (natan, give or place) joins the land, Jacob, and his seed in both verses. Its repetition makes Genesis 35:12 read as the continuation of a promise already spoken in the same words.
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