What Does Genesis 4:19 Mean in the King James?
And Lamech took unto him two wives: the name of the one was Adah, and the name of the other Zillah.
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
Adah carries the meaning “adornment,” and Zillah carries “shade,” so the two names hold a paired image: ornament beside shadow.
THE MEANING
You meet two distinct women in the same household, each named with an image: Adah, adornment; Zillah, shade. The verse’s simple count of two holds both names, and the meanings carried within them, together.
THE ROOT
עָדָה
ʿĀdāh
GROWS FROM
עדי
ʿ-d-y
To adorn or ornament.
Adah belongs to the Hebrew word-family of adornment. Her name carries an image into the verse: this is a name with a quality inside it, not only a label.
ALSO GROWS
ʿādâ: To adorn or put on an ornament.
עָדָה
This verb shares the name’s root-family and shows adornment as an action as well as an image.
ʿădî: An ornament or adornment.
עֲדִי
This noun makes the meaning carried by Adah’s name concrete: ornament.
צִלָּה
Ṣillāh
GROWS FROM
צלל
ṣ-l-l
To grow dark or cast shade.
Zillah’s name carries the image of shade, from the Hebrew word-family of shadow and darkening. Beside Adah’s adornment, her name adds shadow to the verse’s pair of images.
ALSO GROWS
ṣēl: Shadow or shade.
צֵל
This is the concrete shadow-image associated with Zillah’s name and links it to the verse’s naming.
ṣālal: To grow dark or become shadowed.
צָלַל
The verb shows that shade belongs to a Hebrew word-family of darkening, giving the name an image beyond its sound.
THE PATTERN
Scripture lets names carry defining nature or reality inside them.
And Adam called his wife’s name Eve; because she was the mother of all living.Let not my lord, I pray thee, regard this man of Belial, even Nabal: for as his name is, so is he; Nabal is his name, and folly is with him: but I thine handmaid saw not the young men of my lord, whom thou didst send.Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.THE THREAD
He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.Zillah’s name carries the Hebrew image of shade, and Psalm 91 uses that same shadow word-family for dwelling under the Almighty. The name in Genesis opens into an image of sheltering shade.
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