What Does Genesis 46:25 Mean in the King James?
These are the sons of Bilhah, which Laban gave unto Rachel his daughter, and she bare these unto Jacob: all the souls were seven.
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 count of seven living souls keeps Bilhah visible as the mother within a family line shaped by her transfer from Laban to Rachel.
THE MEANING
Here, belonging is traced through concrete relationships: Laban gives Bilhah to Rachel, and Bilhah bears children for Jacob. The line names Bilhah as their mother while preserving the circumstance of her transfer. Its seven nefesh are seven living souls, keeping the count attached to people.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This verse undoes the idea that descent is only a father’s line: it names Bilhah as the mother of the counted descendants.
THE ROOT
נֶפֶשׁ
nefesh
GROWS FROM
נפש
A living self; a person as a living being.
“souls” in this verse is nefesh. Here nefesh carries the concrete sense of a living person: seven members of Bilhah’s line. The same root family also includes rest and refreshment, keeping the count attached to living beings.
ALSO GROWS
nefesh: Living soul, self, person.
נֶפֶשׁ
This is the word the verse uses to count Bilhah’s descendants.
naphash: To rest or be refreshed.
נָפַשׁ
This related form keeps the root’s sense connected to the condition of a living being.
נָתַן
nathan
GROWS FROM
נתן
To give, set, or place.
“gave” in this verse is nathan. The verb can carry the sense of placing as well as giving. The verse holds Laban’s transfer of Bilhah together with the births attributed to her, preserving both the arrangement and her motherhood.
ALSO GROWS
nathan: To give, set, place.
נָתַן
This is the verb describing Laban’s act toward Rachel.
mattan: A gift.
מַתָּן
This related form makes the language of giving visible in the verse’s account of Bilhah’s transfer.
THE PATTERN
Scripture counts a people as living souls gathered into a household or assembly.
All the souls that came with Jacob into Egypt, which came out of his loins, besides Jacob’s sons’ wives, all the souls were threescore and six;And all the souls that came out of the loins of Jacob were seventy souls: for Joseph was in Egypt already.Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.THE THREAD
All the souls that came with Jacob into Egypt, which came out of his loins, besides Jacob’s sons’ wives, all the souls were threescore and six;This verse uses נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, “living soul”) for the seven descendants; the next verse uses that same word for the wider group traveling with Jacob. The repeated word opens the tally as a count of living people within a family.
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