What Does Genesis 44:24 Mean in the King James?
And it came to pass when we came up unto thy servant my father, we told him the words of my lord.
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 root behind “we told him” is kin to a word for “before”: the report is something brought into the father’s presence.
THE MEANING
You meet speech crossing a relationship: one person’s words are carried to another, into the father’s presence. What is spoken becomes something set before someone, and that disclosure opens the next movement.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the idea that speech ends at the speaker: here, words travel into another person’s relationship and become part of what can happen next.
THE ROOT
וַנַּגֶּד
vannagged
GROWS FROM
נגד
n-g-d
To stand out in front or make conspicuous; in this verbal form, to make known or declare.
“told” in this verse is vannagged. The verb means “we made known” or “we declared.” Its kin word neged means “before” or “opposite,” linking telling with bringing something into view before another person.
ALSO GROWS
neged: before, in front of, opposite
נֶגֶד
This related word gives the act of telling a spatial echo: a message is brought before someone.
nagid: leader, ruler
נָגִיד
This related noun extends the family’s image of what stands at the front, though here the root describes making words known.
דִּבְרֵי
divrei
GROWS FROM
דבר
d-b-r
To speak; the related noun carries the senses of word, matter, and thing.
The verse calls the report divrei, from dabar, whose range includes both “words” and “matter.” What is carried is spoken language with substance: something that now stands between people.
ALSO GROWS
dābār: word, matter, thing
דָּבָר
The noun’s range lets the reported words also carry the sense of a matter placed before the father.
dibbēr: he spoke
דִּבֵּר
This verb from the same root keeps speech and the “words” it produces within one family.
THE PATTERN
A spoken message moves from one relationship into another, where it becomes something the next person must meet.
We will not hide them from their children, shewing to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done.And Moses told Aaron all the words of the LORD who had sent him, and all the signs which he had commanded him.Howbeit Jesus suffered him not, but saith unto him, Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee.THE THREAD
And Moses went up unto God, and the LORD called unto him out of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel;“Tell” here uses the same Hebrew root נגד as “we told him” in this verse. In both, telling carries a message into another’s presence, making it available to shape what follows.
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