What Does Genesis 47:23 Mean in the King James?
Then Joseph said unto the people, Behold, I have bought you this day and your land for Pharaoh: lo, here is seed for you, and ye shall sow the land.
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 same Hebrew root means both “seed” and “sow,” so the provision already carries the work that will keep Pharaoh’s acquired land producing.
THE MEANING
Provision does not erase the conditions under which it arrives: seed comes after the people and their land are bought for Pharaoh. They can sow again while the ground they work carries another’s claim.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that provision proves freedom dissolves here: seed is given in the same moment the people and their land are declared acquired for Pharaoh.
THE ROOT
זֶרַע
zeraʿ
GROWS FROM
זרע
z-r-ʿ
To sow or scatter seed; זֶרַע (zeraʿ) means seed.
Hebrew uses one root for the seed and the act of sowing, where English separates them. The people receive what enables another sowing, but the land they cultivate has been acquired for Pharaoh.
ALSO GROWS
zeraʿ: Seed; also offspring.
זֶרַע
The seed given to the people is the direct expression of this root.
zāraʿ: To sow or scatter seed.
זָרַע
This is the work the people are to continue on the land now claimed for Pharaoh.
קָנִיתִי
qānîtî
GROWS FROM
קנה
q-n-h
To acquire, buy, or possess; קָנִיתִי (qānîtî) means “I have acquired.”
The verb translated “bought” names an acquisition: Joseph says the people and their land have been acquired for Pharaoh. The seed supplies them, but it does not undo that transfer of ownership.
ALSO GROWS
qānâ: To acquire, buy, or possess.
קָנָה
This is the root verb behind Joseph’s statement that he has bought the people and their land.
miqneh: Possessions or livestock.
מִקְנֶה
This related noun names acquired property, illuminating the verse’s stark treatment of people and land as transferred assets.
THE PATTERN
When control of land shifts to a ruler or owner, the people cultivating it can remain responsible for its yield.
And it shall come to pass in the increase, that ye shall give the fifth part unto Pharaoh, and four parts shall be your own, for seed of the field, and for your food, and for them of your households, and for food for your little ones.And he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your oliveyards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants.And when the time of the fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits of it.THE THREAD
And it shall come to pass in the increase, that ye shall give the fifth part unto Pharaoh, and four parts shall be your own, for seed of the field, and for your food, and for them of your households, and for food for your little ones.The same Hebrew root זרע (zeraʿ, seed and sowing) returns in “seed of the field,” and the next verse shows what that sowing sustains. One fifth goes to Pharaoh while four parts remain for seed and food, making the ongoing terms of the transfer plain.
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