What Does Genesis 50:20 Mean in the King James?
But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.
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 verb describes both the harm others plan and the good God intends: evil is real, but it does not own the outcome.
THE MEANING
The verse lets you name the harm aimed at you without making it the author of every outcome. It places human intention beside God’s intention, with the stated purpose that many remain alive.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The harm done to me determines the only possible end.
THE ROOT
חָשַׁב
chashav
GROWS FROM
ח־ש־ב
ḥ-sh-b
Think, devise, plan, reckon.
“thought / meant” in this verse is chashav. The verse uses this same root for both “you thought” and “God meant.” English gives the actions different sounds, while Hebrew places both intentions on the same root; their aims and outcomes differ.
ALSO GROWS
machashavah: Thought, plan
מַחֲשָׁבָה
This branch makes clear that the word can name an intention or design, not just a passing thought.
cheshbon: Account, reckoning, calculation
חֶשְׁבּוֹן
This branch carries the root into weighing and reckoning, showing how thought can take the shape of a considered design.
לְהַחֲיוֹת
lehachayot
GROWS FROM
ח־י־ה
ḥ-y-h
Live, be alive.
“keep alive” in this verse is lehachayot. The stated purpose is to keep many people alive. The verse names the good in concrete terms: life continues for many, rather than the harm having the final word.
ALSO GROWS
chai: Living, alive
חַי
This branch shares the root’s direct sense of being alive with the verse’s stated purpose.
chayyim: Life
חַיִּים
This branch shows the broader life named by the root; here, the outcome is the continued life of many.
THE PATTERN
Scripture names destructive human intent plainly while showing that it does not exhaust the purpose moving events toward life.
And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain:THE THREAD
For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.The same Hebrew root for thinking and planning that appears twice in Genesis 50:20 appears here in both “thoughts” and “think.” Jeremiah pairs that root with “peace”, wholeness, and “not of evil,” making the intention’s object and end explicit.
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