What Does Genesis 40:8 Mean in the King James?
And they said unto him, We have dreamed a dream, and there is no interpreter of it. And Joseph said unto them, Do not interpretations belong to God? tell me them, I pray you.
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 hidden meaning belongs to God, while the dreamers’ telling is what brings it into the open.
THE MEANING
A mystery can exceed your ability to decode it without being meaningless. Interpretation belongs to God, while telling the experience remains human and necessary. The verse holds dependence and participation together: meaning is received, and what is hidden is still spoken aloud.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that meaning is either secured by personal expertise or lost forever: the interpreter is not its source, and the dream can still be told.
THE ROOT
פִּתְרֹנִים
pithronim
GROWS FROM
פתר
patar
To interpret or explain, especially a dream.
“interpretations” in this verse is pithronim. The same root names both the interpreter and the interpretation, linking the meaning to the one who gives it voice. Joseph’s question locates the source beyond human expertise, even as he invites the dreamers to speak.
ALSO GROWS
poter: Interpreter; one who explains a dream.
פֹּתֵר
The dreamers say there is no interpreter, and Joseph answers by pointing to the source of interpretation.
pithron: Interpretation or explanation.
פִּתְרוֹן
This singular form makes clear that the hidden meaning itself, not only the interpreter, belongs to God.
סַפְּרוּ
sapperu
GROWS FROM
ספר
sapar
To count, recount, or tell.
“tell” in this verse is sapperu. The dreamers’ telling is an active part of the encounter: their words matter even though they do not control the meaning. This root’s family also includes the book and the scribe, joining spoken recounting with an account that can be ordered and carried forward.
ALSO GROWS
sefer: Book or written record.
סֵפֶר
The spoken account of the dream shares its root with a record that preserves what is recounted.
sofer: Scribe; one who records or counts.
סוֹפֵר
The scribe’s work echoes the dreamers’ role in putting their experience into words.
THE PATTERN
Hidden meaning is disclosed as God’s gift, while human speech carries it into the open.
And Joseph answered Pharaoh, saying, It is not in me: God shall give Pharaoh an answer of peace.But there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets, and maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days. Thy dream, and the visions of thy head upon thy bed, are these;To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues:THE THREAD
And it came to pass in the morning that his spirit was troubled; and he sent and called for all the magicians of Egypt, and all the wise men thereof: and Pharaoh told them his dream; but there was none that could interpret them unto Pharaoh.The word for interpret here comes from the same פתר (patar) root as the interpretations Joseph says belong to God. The repeated root carries the question forward: Pharaoh’s court cannot produce the meaning, and Joseph’s next answer locates its source in God.
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