What Does Genesis 7:17 Mean in the King James?
And the flood was forty days upon the earth; and the waters increased, and bare up the ark, and it was lift up above the earth.
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 waters that cover the earth are also the force that carries the ark above it.
THE MEANING
As the waters increase across the earth, they carry the ark upward. The verse holds engulfment and elevation in one movement: what covers the ground bears the vessel above it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse unsettles the assumption that rising water only swallows: here the same rising water also lifts the ark above the earth.
THE ROOT
וַיִּשְׂאוּ
vayis'u
GROWS FROM
נשא
n-s-ʾ
To lift, carry, or bear.
“bare up” in this verse is vayis'u. The Hebrew gives two distinct motions: the waters carry or bear the ark (נָשָׂא, nasa), and then it rises above the earth (רוּם, rum: rise, be high). The נשא family can also describe a burden lifted away as forgiven, joining upward bearing with removal.
ALSO GROWS
nesui-pesha: Transgression lifted or carried away; rendered “forgiven” in Psalm 32:1.
נְשׂוּי־פֶּשַׁע
The same root that carries the ark upward can describe what is lifted off and removed.
massa: A burden or load; something carried.
מַשָּׂא
A burden is what gets borne, showing how the root’s sense of carrying extends beyond the ark to what is held and lifted.
THE PATTERN
In scenes of engulfing water or mire, being drawn up is the movement from being overwhelmed toward firm ground.
He sent from above, he took me, he drew me out of many waters.He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings.THE THREAD
A Psalm of David, Maschil. Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.Psalm 32:1 uses a form of the same root behind “bare up” for transgression that the KJV renders “forgiven.” Its word picture is rebellion lifted or carried away, extending the ark’s upward bearing into the language of release.
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