What Does Genesis 41:35 Mean in the King James?
And let them gather all the food of those good years that come, and lay up corn under the hand of Pharaoh, and let them keep food in the cities.
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
Abundance in a good season is gathered, placed, and guarded so it can keep sustaining life through what follows.
THE MEANING
The verse presents a fruitful season as a time when what sustains life is gathered, placed under care, and kept within reach. Abundance is held so it can meet needs beyond the moment in which it arrives.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse dissolves the idea that keeping provision means refusing abundance: what is gathered and guarded is abundance made available to sustain life.
THE ROOT
וְיִקְבְּצוּ
veyiqbetzu
GROWS FROM
קבץ
qavats
to gather or bring together
“gather” in this verse is veyiqbetzu. The verb pictures food being brought together, rather than appearing as a reserve all at once. The root makes preservation begin with gathering: separate portions become a shared store.
ALSO GROWS
kibbutz: gathering, collection
קִבּוּץ
The shared root keeps the act of gathering visible in the store itself: what sustains life is brought together.
miq-bats: collection, compilation
מִקְבָּץ
This branch names a collection formed from separate parts, echoing how food from good years becomes provision held together.
וְשָׁמָרוּ
veshamaru
GROWS FROM
שמר
shamar
to guard or watch over
“keep” in this verse is veshamaru. The verb carries the sense of guarding and watching over, so keeping food means protecting what has been gathered. The root links stored provision with active care: what sustains life is watched over so it remains available.
ALSO GROWS
shomer: keeper, guard
שֹׁמֵר
The keeper is the one who watches over what has been entrusted to care, just as the food is kept in the cities.
mishmeret: charge, watch, guarded duty
מִשְׁמֶרֶת
This branch makes keeping a continuing watch, revealing the care that lets gathered provision remain safe.
THE PATTERN
Provision becomes durable when what is gathered in abundance is kept for a time of need.
Provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest.When they were filled, he said unto his disciples, Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost.Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come.THE THREAD
The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul.The Hebrew verb rendered “preserve” here shares the root שׁמר (shamar), “guard or watch over,” with “keep” in Genesis 41:35. The same language that describes guarding food in the cities also describes the LORD guarding a person’s living soul.
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