What Does Genesis 49:14 Mean in the King James?
Issachar is a strong ass couching down between two burdens:
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
Issachar’s name carries the meaning “hire,” placing labor and wages inside the image of a strong donkey crouched between two loads.
THE MEANING
Strength and weight appear together: the strong body is still crouched between burdens. The name Issachar carries the sense of hire or wages, keeping the yield of labor within the same image.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This image undoes the belief that being strong means being free of weight.
THE ROOT
יִשָּׂשכָר
Yissachar
GROWS FROM
שכר
š-k-r
Hire, wages, or recompense.
“Issachar” in this verse is Yissachar. The name shares the root for hire and wages; Genesis 30:18 makes that link explicit when Leah names her son after receiving her hire. The verse places this name beside an animal bearing loads, bringing labor and its recompense into the same image.
ALSO GROWS
sākār: Pay or recompense for work.
שָׂכָר
This branch makes the meaning carried in Issachar’s name visible.
sākîr: A person employed for wages.
שָׂכִיר
It connects the name’s wage-root to the labor suggested by the donkey bearing its loads.
רֹבֵץ
rovetz
GROWS FROM
רבץ
r-b-ṣ
To lie down or crouch.
“couching down” in this verse is rovetz. The verb describes a body held low, and it also describes sin crouching at the door in Genesis 4:7. That shared word gives the posture a poised quality, while the two loads keep this scene grounded in physical weight.
ALSO GROWS
rāvaṣ: To settle or bend down close to the ground.
רָבַץ
This is the verb behind Issachar’s crouched posture and the same root used for sin crouching at Cain’s door.
mirbāṣ: A place where an animal lies or settles.
מִרְבָּץ
This related form carries the verb’s low, settled posture into a place of rest.
THE PATTERN
Scripture binds the worker who bears the labor to the provision and wages attached to the work.
Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn.And in the same house remain, eating and drinking such things as they give: for the labourer is worthy of his hire. Go not from house to house.Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth.THE THREAD
If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.The same verb, רָבַץ (rāvaṣ), meaning “lie down” or “crouch,” describes sin at the door and Issachar between the loads. The shared word reveals a low, held posture in both scenes, though each is set in a very different place.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us