What Does Genesis 9:9 Mean in the King James?
And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you;
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 word “seed” makes the covenant reach beyond the people standing there to the generations their lives carry forward.
THE MEANING
You are read here as part of a life that extends beyond your own moment. The covenant is established with you and with the seed after you, joining the present generation to those who come after.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a promise belongs only to the person who first receives it: the verse explicitly extends it to the seed after you.
THE ROOT
מֵקִים
meqim
GROWS FROM
קום
Rise, stand, remain; in this form, cause to stand or establish.
The verb translated “establish” carries the sense of making something stand. The covenant is pictured as set in place to endure, not merely spoken once.
ALSO GROWS
qum: Rise or stand.
קוּם
This is the root verb beneath “establish”: the covenant is made to stand.
maqom: Place or dwelling.
מָקוֹם
From the same root, a place is where something stands; the covenant gives the promise a place across generations.
זַרְעֲכֶם
zera‘akhem
GROWS FROM
זרע
Sow; seed or offspring.
The same Hebrew word can mean seed planted in the ground or a person’s descendants. It holds family continuity in the image of sowing: what is present carries life forward.
ALSO GROWS
zara: To sow.
זָרַע
The verb shows the action contained in “seed”: life is planted and continues beyond the moment of sowing.
zorea: One who sows; a sower.
זֹרֵעַ
The sower links what is planted now with the growth that follows.
zera: Seed; offspring or descendants.
זֶרַע
The noun names both the planted seed and the generations included in this covenant.
THE PATTERN
A divine promise can hold the present hearer and the generations that follow within one continuing bond.
And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee.Know therefore that the LORD thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations;For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.THE THREAD
And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee.The same verb for “establish” appears beside covenant and seed, now explicitly naming the generations in view. Genesis 9:9 already holds that reach in the phrase “your seed after you.”
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us