What Does Genesis 37:32 Mean in the King James?
And they sent the coat of many colours, and they brought it to their father; and said, This have we found: know now whether it be thy son’s coat or no.
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
They ask Jacob to recognize a garment, while concealing the truth its owners already know.
THE MEANING
You can be handed a real object and invited to draw a false conclusion from it. The coat is real, and the ones presenting it know whose it is, yet their question hides what they know. Evidence and honesty occupy separate places in the same moment.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A real piece of evidence does not guarantee that the story told around it is true.
THE ROOT
הַכֶּר־נָא
hakkēr-nāʾ
GROWS FROM
נכר
n-k-r
To recognize or distinguish someone or something as known or different.
English “know” can sound like gathering information; this verb asks Jacob to identify the coat, to recognize it as Joseph’s. The same root later describes Joseph recognizing his brothers and making himself strange to them, so recognition and estrangement run through the deception.
ALSO GROWS
vayyakker: He recognized
וַיַּכֵּר
Genesis 42:8 uses this form when Joseph recognizes his brothers, echoing the recognition the brothers ask of Jacob here.
nokri: Foreigner, stranger
נָכְרִי
This related form marks someone as unfamiliar or outside; the root links recognizing a person with making or regarding someone as a stranger.
THE PATTERN
Visible evidence can be real while the account attached to it conceals the truth.
And Joseph saw his brethren, and he knew them, but made himself strange unto them, and spake roughly unto them; and he said unto them, Whence come ye? And they said, From the land of Canaan to buy food.But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?THE THREAD
And Joseph knew his brethren, but they knew not him.The same נכר (n-k-r) root appears when Joseph recognizes his brothers and when they fail to recognize him. Here, the brothers place a garment before Jacob; later, recognition itself turns back on them as Joseph’s identity stays hidden.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us