What Does Genesis 9:2 Mean in the King James?
And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered.
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
Human dominion is named from the animals’ side: it arrives as fear and dread.
THE MEANING
The creatures around you feel the force of human authority as fear and dread. The verse makes their place within human reach tangible: power over other lives has consequences those lives experience.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that granted authority is neutral to those beneath it: the verse says the animals feel it as fear and dread.
THE ROOT
נִתְּנוּ
nittənū
GROWS FROM
נתן
natan
give, set, place
“delivered” in this verse is nittənū. The verb carries the sense of giving and placing as well as delivery: the creatures are placed within human hands. That transfer makes dominion a power with a felt consequence for other lives.
ALSO GROWS
natan: to give, set, or place
נָתַן
This is the verb’s wider sense: the animals are placed into human reach.
mattanah: gift
מַתָּנָה
The related word for a gift shows the language of giving beneath the transfer described here.
חִתְּכֶם
chittəkhem
GROWS FROM
חתת
chathath
be shattered or dismayed; in a causative form, terrify
“dread” in this verse is chittəkhem. This word adds a sharper edge to the pair: the root can describe being dismayed or shattered. Human presence is described not only as something animals fear, but as something that can unsettle them.
ALSO GROWS
chatat: to be dismayed or shattered
חָתַת
This verbal form reveals the force carried by “dread” in the verse.
mechittah: terror or ruin
מְחִתָּה
This related noun shows the root’s capacity to name a destabilizing impact.
מוֹרַאֲכֶם
mora’akhem
GROWS FROM
ירא
yare
fear; stand in awe
The root can name awe before God and fear before people or danger. Here the animals face human beings, so the word’s force is fear, paired with the stronger dread that follows.
ALSO GROWS
yir’ah: fear or awe
יִרְאָה
The noun makes clear that fear and awe belong to the same root family.
nora: fearsome or awe-inspiring
נוֹרָא
This related form shows how the root can describe what evokes fear in another.
THE PATTERN
Human dominion over other creatures is real power, and the creatures’ experience reveals how that power lands.
And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast: but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel.For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind:THE THREAD
Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.The creatures placed into human hands in verse 2 are named as food in verse 3. Both “delivered” and “given” come from נתן (natan, give, set, place), showing what this transfer of power includes.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
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