What Does Genesis 6:21 Mean in the King James?
And take thou unto thee of all food that is eaten, and thou shalt gather it to thee; and it shall be for food for thee, and for them.
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
Hebrew gives “food” and “is eaten” one root, so the gathered store is defined by the life it enters, and by the other lives it sustains.
THE MEANING
Your life is sustained by what is made available and taken in. The verse widens provision beyond the self: what you gather is also for the other lives that depend on it. What is kept ready becomes a shared condition of continuing life.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that survival means securing enough only for yourself dissolves here: the gathered food is expressly “for thee, and for them.”
THE ROOT
מַאֲכָל
maʾakhal
GROWS FROM
אכל
eat, consume
The noun מַאֲכָל (maʾakhal, “food”) and the verb יֵאָכֵל (yeʾakhel, “is eaten”) both grow from אכל (ʾ-k-l, “eat, consume”). English separates the provision from the act of eating, while Hebrew holds them in one word family: what is gathered serves life as it is taken in.
ALSO GROWS
ʾākal: eat, consume
אָכַל
The verse’s “is eaten” form belongs to this verb family, linking the supply to the act that sustains life.
maʾakhal: food, that which is eaten
מַאֲכָל
This is the verse’s word for food; its root makes provision and consumption part of the same unfolding.
THE PATTERN
Food sustains a wider web of life: it is given, gathered, and provided for human and creaturely need.
And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.Provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest.Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?THE THREAD
And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.The phrase “for meat” is לְאָכְלָה (leʾokhlah, “for food, to eat”), built from אכל (ʾ-k-l, “eat, consume”), the same root as the food and eating words in Genesis 6:21. Genesis 1:29 presents food as given; here, that provision is gathered for human and other lives together.
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