What Does Genesis 38:7 Mean in the King James?
And Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the LORD; and the LORD slew 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
God’s gaze here is not passive observation: the verse moves from what is evil in his sight straight to God’s act of killing.
THE MEANING
You encounter the judgment without a softening explanation: Er is called wicked in the LORD’s sight, and the LORD slays him. The verse gives no account of the wickedness itself; its severity stands in the open.
THE ROOT
וַיְמִתֵהוּ
waymīṯēhû
GROWS FROM
מות
m-w-t
Die; in the causative form here, cause to die or put to death.
“slew” in this verse is waymīṯēhû. The Hebrew form says the LORD caused Er to die, naming divine agency directly. Its root also appears in words for dying, death, and the dead, keeping the act within that whole field.
ALSO GROWS
mûṯ: To die
מוּת
The basic verb names the death that the causative form here brings about.
māveṯ: Death
מָוֶת
The noun shows the wider field of death carried by the verb.
mēṯ: Dead; a dead person
מֵת
This form names the state that follows the action in the verse.
רַע
raʿ
GROWS FROM
רעע
r-ʿ-ʿ
Be evil or bad; act harmfully.
“wicked” in this verse is raʿ. The word names evil as what is seen by the LORD, while the verse leaves the particular deed unnamed. The same root can name evil as a condition or describe acting wickedly, connecting what Er is called with what is done.
ALSO GROWS
raʿat: Wickedness, evil
רָעַת
This form appears in Genesis 6:5, where GOD sees humanity’s wickedness.
rōaʿ: Badness, evil, harm
רֹעַ
This noun branch presents evil as harm or badness, not only as a label for a person.
hērēaʿ: To do evil; to act wickedly
הֵרֵעַ
This verb makes explicit the harmful action that the verse leaves unspecified.
THE PATTERN
In scripture, divine sight of evil leads to judgment rather than detached observation.
And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.The face of the LORD is against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth.Who will render to every man according to his deeds:THE THREAD
And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.The Hebrew רָעַת (raʿat, “wickedness”) in Genesis 6:5 comes from the same רעע (r-ʿ-ʿ) root as Er’s רַע (raʿ, “wicked”). Both verses place this evil before GOD’s sight; one names it in Er, the other across humanity.
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