What Does Genesis 45:21 Mean in the King James?
And the children of Israel did so: and Joseph gave them wagons, according to the commandment of Pharaoh, and gave them provision for the way.
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
A journey is supplied in two forms at once: a means of movement and food for the way.
THE MEANING
The verse meets your present journey in concrete terms: what carries you and what sustains you are both set within reach. The way is not treated as an idea; it has needs, and provision is fitted to the journey as it begins.
THE ROOT
צֵדָה
tsedah
GROWS FROM
צוד
tsud
To hunt or catch what sustains life.
The word for provision carries a connection to hunting and catching: this is food secured for the road. English can make provision sound general, while the Hebrew names sustenance prepared for the journey.
ALSO GROWS
tsayid: Hunting; game or prey.
צַיִד
It shares the root’s image of securing food, the concrete substance of the journey’s provision.
tsayyad: Hunter.
צַיָּד
This branch names the one who hunts, showing the same root at work in both securing food and the food secured.
דֶּרֶךְ
derekh
GROWS FROM
דרך
darakh
To tread or step.
The way is linked to the act of taking steps: it is ground actually traveled. The provision here is for a path walked by real bodies, not an abstract destination.
ALSO GROWS
darakh: To tread, step.
דָּרַךְ
The verb makes the way’s connection to the traveler’s steps visible.
dorekh: One who treads.
דֹּרֵךְ
The traveler and the traveled way share the same root of stepping forward.
וַיִּתֵּן
vayyitten
GROWS FROM
נתן
natan
To give, set, or place.
“gave” in this verse is vayyitten. The same verb appears twice: Joseph gives both the wagons and the food. The root’s sense of placing something in reach deepens the scene, the means to move and what sustains the movement are both provided.
ALSO GROWS
mattan: Gift.
מַתָּן
This noun carries the same root of giving, linking what is handed over with a gift.
mattanah: Gift, present.
מַתָּנָה
It shows the root’s movement from the act of giving to what is given.
THE PATTERN
Travel is met with concrete provision that carries, feeds, or sustains the traveler along the way.
And the angel of the LORD came again the second time, and touched him, and said, Arise and eat; because the journey is too great for thee. And he arose, and did eat and drink, and went in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights unto Horeb the mount of God.The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.And he said unto them, When I sent you without purse, and scrip, and shoes, lacked ye any thing? And they said, Nothing.THE THREAD
And thou shalt remember all the way which the LORD thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no.Genesis places wagons and food beside the way; Deuteronomy uses the same Hebrew word דֶּרֶךְ (derekh, way or path) for the traveled course. Here the LORD leads along that way, connecting practical provision with movement under guidance.
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