What Does Genesis 39:18 Mean in the King James?
And it came to pass, as I lifted up my voice and cried, that he left his garment with me, and fled out.
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 garment offered as proof shares its Hebrew root with treachery, so the object carries a hidden tension the loud accusation cannot silence.
THE MEANING
A cry can turn an accusation into a public claim, with a garment made to carry that claim as proof. The Hebrew word for garment shares its root with treachery, binding the visible object to the betrayal hidden in the story told about it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that a loud accusation, or an object held up as proof, makes the accusation true.
THE ROOT
בִּגְדוֹ
bigdo
GROWS FROM
בגד
bagad
To act treacherously, deal faithlessly.
The word for garment carries the same root as betrayal. The garment is real, but its presence does not make the accusation built around it true.
ALSO GROWS
beged: Garment, clothing.
בֶּגֶד
This is the word for the object she presents as part of her account.
boged: One who deals treacherously; a traitor.
בּוֹגֵד
This branch makes the root’s echo of betrayal audible beneath the claim attached to the garment.
וָאֶקְרָא
va'eqra
GROWS FROM
קרא
qara
To call, summon, or proclaim.
“cried” in this verse is va'eqra. The cry is a calling out, not just a sound. The root can carry the sense of summoning others into a claim as hearers.
ALSO GROWS
qara: Call out, proclaim.
קָרָא
The speaker’s cry gives the accusation a public voice.
miqra: A convocation or assembly; a reading or proclamation.
מִקְרָא
This branch shows how calling can gather people around what is being said.
THE PATTERN
False testimony can make a visible object or a public claim appear to settle what happened.
And they took Joseph’s coat, and killed a kid of the goats, and dipped the coat in the blood;Thou shalt not raise a false report: put not thine hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness.Now the chief priests, and elders, and all the council, sought false witness against Jesus, to put him to death;THE THREAD
And it came to pass, when she saw that he had left his garment in her hand, and was fled forth,This verse names the garment before she raises her cry: the object is real, but the account built from it is not. The repeated Hebrew word beged lets the root’s echo of treachery follow the garment into her accusation.
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