What Does Genesis 41:17 Mean in the King James?
And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, In my dream, behold, I stood upon the bank of the river:
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 Hebrew word for the riverbank is “lip,” placing Pharaoh at the same edge where speech emerges.
THE MEANING
You stand at the edge of what is moving beneath the surface: the dream has not yet been interpreted, but it has reached speech. The image holds water and words together at a threshold where what is hidden can be voiced.
THE ROOT
שְׂפַת
sefat
GROWS FROM
שפה
safah
Lip; by extension, an edge or bank, and language.
“bank” in this verse is sefat. The riverbank is literally a lip, the same Hebrew word used for a mouth’s lip and for language. Pharaoh stands at the water’s edge, then gives the dream words; Hebrew holds the physical boundary and the threshold of speech in one image.
ALSO GROWS
safah: Lip; also language or speech.
שָׂפָה
The same word links the river’s edge to the mouth that speaks the dream.
sefatayim: Lips.
שְׂפָתַיִם
The plural form makes the image bodily: the bank is named through the lips that give speech an edge.
THE PATTERN
A dream can bring hidden knowledge to the surface before its meaning is understood.
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.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;And when they were departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word: for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him.THE THREAD
And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.The word translated “bank” here belongs to שפה (safah), which also means lip and language. Pharaoh stands at the river’s lip, then speaks his dream; the same Hebrew word connects the water’s edge with the words that cross it.
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