What Does Genesis 41:28 Mean in the King James?
This is the thing which I have spoken unto Pharaoh: What God is about to do he sheweth unto Pharaoh.
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 dābār (דָּבָר, “word/matter”) and dibbartî (דִּבַּרְתִּי, “I spoke”) share the root דבר, binding what is spoken to the matter about to unfold.
THE MEANING
What is taking shape is known before it becomes visible, and its disclosure can arrive ahead of its fulfillment. The coming matter and the word that makes it known belong together.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that the future is sealed until it happens.
THE ROOT
הַדָּבָר
ha-dābār
GROWS FROM
דבר
d-b-r
To speak; as a noun, a word, matter, or thing.
“thing / spoken” in this verse is ha-dābār. The word translated “thing” and the verb translated “spoken” share the consonant root דבר. English separates the matter from its telling, while Hebrew lets the coming event and its spoken disclosure echo one another.
ALSO GROWS
dābār: Word, matter, thing.
דָּבָר
This is the word translated “thing” for what God is about to do.
dibbēr: To speak.
דִּבֵּר
The form dibbartî (דִּבַּרְתִּי, “I spoke”) in this verse carries the same root as “thing.”
THE PATTERN
God’s coming acts can be disclosed before their visible fulfillment.
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;Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.THE THREAD
Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.Amos uses dābār (דָּבָר, “thing/matter”) in “will do nothing,” the same word translated “thing” in Genesis. Genesis pairs that matter with the related verb “I spoke”; the shared root connects the coming act with its disclosure.
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