What Does Genesis 8:18 Mean in the King James?
And Noah went forth, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons’ wives with him:
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 one whose name carries rest does not stay enclosed: he crosses into the open with his whole household.
THE MEANING
You meet an opening where preserved life crosses from shelter into the open, together: Noah goes with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives. His name carries rest, and that rest moves beyond the enclosure with them.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that being kept safe means remaining enclosed is undone here: shelter becomes a passage through which the preserved household can emerge.
THE ROOT
וַיֵּצֵא
wayyēṣēʾ
GROWS FROM
יצא
yatsa
To go out, come forth, emerge.
“went forth” in this verse is wayyēṣēʾ. The Hebrew verb marks a crossing from inside to outside. Its branches carry the sense of an exit or an issuing forth, showing this as emergence into the open, not merely travel from one place to another.
ALSO GROWS
motsa: A going out, issue, or point of departure.
מוֹצָא
It carries the same movement outward that marks Noah’s crossing from the ark.
yetsiah: Going out, departure, exit.
יְצִיאָה
This branch makes clear that the verb holds the idea of leaving an enclosure and entering what lies beyond it.
נֹחַ
Noaḥ
GROWS FROM
נוח
nuach
To rest, settle, or come to rest.
Noah’s name carries the root of rest, yet here he goes out. Rest is not confined to staying still inside the ark; it crosses into open life with the people sheltered alongside him.
ALSO GROWS
nuach: To rest, settle, or come to rest.
נוּחַ
This verb gives the name Noah its association with rest and settling.
menuchah: Rest or a resting place.
מְנוּחָה
This branch lets the name’s sense of rest travel with Noah as he leaves the enclosure.
THE PATTERN
When the way out opens, life moves from enclosure toward its next beginning.
And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even the selfsame day it came to pass, that all the hosts of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt.Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee:And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth.THE THREAD
Go forth of the ark, thou, and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy sons’ wives with thee.Both verses use יצא (yatsa, “go out” or “come forth”): verse 16 gives the command, and verse 18 shows the household crossing its threshold together. The repeated verb turns the opening from an instruction into a shared emergence.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
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