What Does Genesis 49:20 Mean in the King James?
Out of Asher his bread shall be fat, and he shall yield royal dainties.
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
What the KJV calls “dainties” carries the root of delight, so the verse moves from rich bread into food whose very name means pleasure.
THE MEANING
Provision here exceeds survival: the bread is rich, and its yield becomes a king’s delicacies. Asher’s name carries the language of flourishing, so nourishment opens into delight and honor.
THE ROOT
מַעֲדַנֵּי
ma’adannei
GROWS FROM
עדן
ʿ-d-n
Delight, pleasure; to luxuriate.
The word rendered “dainties” belongs to the root associated with delight and pleasure. The verse’s abundance is not merely enough food: it reaches a kind of nourishment whose name carries delight.
ALSO GROWS
ma’adan: A delicacy or luxury.
מַעֲדָן
This close branch names the rich food Asher’s yield provides.
ʿeden: Delight or pleasure.
עֵדֶן
The same root opens the image beyond sustenance into pleasure.
אָשֵׁר
Asher
GROWS FROM
אשר
ʾ-š-r
Happiness, well-being, flourishing.
Genesis itself links Asher’s name with happiness and being called blessed. Here that flourishing takes a tangible shape: rich bread and a yield fit for a king’s table.
ALSO GROWS
be’oshri: In my happiness.
בְּאָשְׁרִי
This is the wordplay Leah uses when she names Asher in Genesis 30:13.
ashrei: Flourishing.
אַשְׁרֵי
This branch carries the name’s sense of well-being into the verse’s picture of abundance.
שְׁמֵנָה
shemenah
GROWS FROM
שמן
sh-m-n
To be fat or grow rich.
“fat” in this verse is shemenah. The bread is described with a word from the root of fatness and richness. The image holds fullness and quality together: this is provision with substance, not a bare ration.
ALSO GROWS
shamen: Fat or rich.
שָׁמֵן
This adjective makes the bread’s full-bodied richness explicit.
shemen: Oil.
שֶׁמֶן
Oil is another form of richness from this root, extending the verse’s image of nourishing plenty.
THE PATTERN
Scripture pictures abundant provision as nourishment that becomes delight and overflow.
A land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of oil olive, and honey;Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.And Jesus took the loaves; and when he had given thanks, he distributed to the disciples, and the disciples to them that were set down; and likewise of the fishes as much as they would.THE THREAD
And Leah said, Happy am I, for the daughters will call me blessed: and she called his name Asher.Genesis ties Asher’s name to happiness and being called blessed. In Genesis 49:20, that flourishing takes form as rich bread and delicacies whose root carries the sense of delight.
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