What Does Genesis 44:7 Mean in the King James?
And they said unto him, Wherefore saith my lord these words? God forbid that thy servants should do according to this thing:
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
Hebrew uses the same root for “speak,” “words,” and “thing,” binding the accusation and the deed it names inside one word-family.
THE MEANING
The accusation and the alleged act share one Hebrew root, dabar, meaning “word” or “matter”: the text calls one “these words” and the other “this thing.” The speakers meet the charge with a question and a forceful denial, showing that an accusation does not by itself settle what is true.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
An accusation spoken by someone with authority is already proof of guilt.
THE ROOT
יְדַבֵּר
yedabber
GROWS FROM
דבר
To speak; the related noun names a word, matter, or thing.
“speak / words / thing” in this verse is yedabber. The root דבר appears in the verb translated “saith,” the plural translated “words,” and the singular translated “thing.” English gives the accusation and the deed different labels, while Hebrew lets the same word-family hold them together.
ALSO GROWS
yedabber: speak
יְדַבֵּר
The verb translated “saith” uses the same root as the nouns for “words” and “thing.”
davar: word, matter, thing / words, matters
דָּבָר / דְּבָרִים
The charge is called “these words,” while the deed denied is called “this thing”; singular and plural share the same root.
THE PATTERN
Speech is never weightless in scripture: words name matters, bring them forth, or carry consequences.
And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.THE THREAD
And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live.Deuteronomy uses דָּבָר (dābār, “word/matter”), the same Hebrew word-family that names both “these words” and “this thing” here. It opens the verse further by showing that a dabar can be more than speech: it can be the sustaining matter a person lives by.
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