What Does Genesis 43:34 Mean in the King James?
And he took and sent messes unto them from before him: but Benjamin’s mess was five times so much as any of theirs. And they drank, and were merry with him.
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 repeats the root for lifting: Joseph lifts out the portions, and Benjamin’s share rises to five times the others’.
THE MEANING
You see unequal portions at one shared table: Benjamin receives five times as much as each brother, and they drink with Joseph. The Hebrew closing verb says they become drunk with him, giving the celebration an unguarded, bodily edge.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that belonging requires everyone to receive the same portion dissolves here: one share is fivefold, yet the company drinks together.
THE ROOT
מַשְׂאֹת
massa’ot
GROWS FROM
נשא
To lift, carry, or bear; here, a portion is what is lifted or presented before someone.
“messes / portion” in this verse is massa’ot. The verse uses the same root in the verb “he lifted” and in “portions.” English gives these separate words, while Hebrew makes the serving itself an act of lifting; Benjamin’s share is then raised above the others within the shared meal.
ALSO GROWS
wayyissa: He lifted or raised.
וַיִּשָּׂא
This is the same root in the opening action: Joseph lifts the portions before the brothers.
massa: A burden or load; something carried.
מַשָּׂא
The same root names what is borne as well as what is lifted, linking the presented portion to the idea of something carried.
nasi: A prince or chief; one elevated.
נָשִׂיא
This related word extends the root’s image from lifting a thing to elevation in status, echoing the verse’s visibly elevated portion for Benjamin.
THE PATTERN
Provision placed before people becomes a shared experience of abundance and joy.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry:And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart,THE THREAD
And to his father he sent after this manner; ten asses laden with the good things of Egypt, and ten she asses laden with corn and bread and meat for his father by the way.The word translated “laden” comes from נשא, the same lift-and-carry root behind the portions set before the brothers here. The root opens from a raised share at one table into provisions borne outward to Jacob.
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