What Does Genesis 43:30 Mean in the King James?
And Joseph made haste; for his bowels did yearn upon his brother: and he sought where to weep; and he entered into his chamber, and wept there.
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
Joseph’s yearning is רַחֲמָיו, rachamav, “his compassion,” from the root also found in רֶחֶם, rechem, “womb”: his tenderness is a bodily shelter for his brother.
THE MEANING
Compassion rises in Joseph before he can speak, and he withdraws to weep where no one sees him. The verse lets tenderness be both bodily and private; his tears show how deeply his brother matters to him.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that tenderness is weakness: Joseph’s tears are the overflow of his compassion, not its absence.
THE ROOT
רַחֲמָיו
rachamav
GROWS FROM
רחם
Compassion, tender love; this root also appears in the word for womb.
“yearn” in this verse is rachamav. The Hebrew רַחֲמָיו, rachamav means “his compassion,” the very tenderness the KJV renders as bowels yearning. Its root is shared with רֶחֶם, rechem, “womb,” so compassion carries the sense of a deep, protective tenderness toward another.
ALSO GROWS
rechem: Womb
רֶחֶם
This word shares the root and reveals the bodily, sheltering quality carried by Joseph’s compassion.
rachum: Compassionate
רַחוּם
This adjective from the same root describes a compassionate nature, showing that Joseph’s feeling reflects a way of being, not a passing thought.
rachamim: Compassion
רַחֲמִים
This noun makes explicit the compassion held in Joseph’s Hebrew phrase, restoring the connection between his inward tenderness and his weeping.
THE PATTERN
Scriptural compassion is embodied tenderness that moves toward the vulnerable.
Then spake the woman whose the living child was unto the king, for her bowels yearned upon her son, and she said, O my lord, give her the living child, and in no wise slay it. But the other said, Let it be neither mine nor thine, but divide it.Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee.And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.THE THREAD
Then spake the woman whose the living child was unto the king, for her bowels yearned upon her son, and she said, O my lord, give her the living child, and in no wise slay it. But the other said, Let it be neither mine nor thine, but divide it.The woman’s “bowels yearned” uses the same Hebrew expression for compassion as Joseph’s yearning. In one verse it surges toward a son, and in the other toward a brother: the same root names tenderness that makes another’s life matter.
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