What Does Genesis 4:14 Mean in the King James?
Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth; and from thy face shall I be hid; and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth; and it shall come to pass, that every one that findeth me shall slay me.
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
“Fugitive” and “vagabond” are two distinct, echoing Hebrew motion roots, turning exile into restless movement.
THE MEANING
Violence narrows a life until the ground becomes exile, God’s face seems hidden, and anyone who finds you seems capable of killing you. The same Hebrew verb holds both the killing already done and the killing now feared.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that violence ends with the blow: its verb returns as the future the violent person fears.
THE ROOT
נָע
nāʿ
GROWS FROM
נוע
To move, sway, or wander.
“Fugitive” can sound like a person escaping pursuit; this Hebrew word carries motion itself. Paired with the next word, it makes exile feel unsettled and ongoing.
ALSO GROWS
nûaʿ: To move or sway.
נוּעַ
The root behind “fugitive” begins with motion, not a settled destination.
tenuʿah: Movement or motion.
תְּנוּעָה
This related word keeps the root’s basic sense of being in motion.
נָד
nāḏ
GROWS FROM
נוד
To wander, roam, or move about restlessly.
“vagabond” in this verse is nāḏ. This is a second motion root, close in sound to נָע (nāʿ, “moving”) but distinct from it. Genesis 4:16 echoes it in נוֹד (Nōḏ, “Nod”), making wandering sound again as the name of Cain’s land.
ALSO GROWS
nûd: To wander or move about.
נוּד
This verb gives “vagabond” its sense of restless roaming.
Nōḏ: Nod, the land named with the wandering wordplay.
נוֹד
The next verse turns the movement named here into a place-name.
יַהַרְגֵנִי
yahar'gēnî
GROWS FROM
הרג
To kill or slay.
“slay” in this verse is yahar'gēnî. The verb for the death Cain fears repeats the root used for Abel’s death. The same word carries violence from an act into an expected future.
ALSO GROWS
wayyahargēhû: And he slew him.
וַיַּהַרְגֵהוּ
Genesis 4:8 uses this form for Abel’s killing, with the same root heard here in Cain’s fear.
hōrēg: One who kills; a killer.
הֹרֵג
This form names the agent of the act, while the verse’s form names the killing Cain expects.
THE PATTERN
Violence makes the threat of killing return as the future the violent person fears.
And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him.Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.Then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.THE THREAD
When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth.This verse uses the same pair נָע וָנָד (nāʿ wā-nāḏ, “moving and wandering”) to name Cain’s condition. Here that restless movement is joined to the ground’s refusal to yield, so exile reaches both livelihood and belonging.
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