What Does Hebrews 10:37 Mean in the King James?
For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry.
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 Greek names both the one who is coming and his arrival, so the length of the wait does not define the promise.
THE MEANING
You are addressed inside an interval that can be felt, yet the verse calls it a little while and holds the arrival as certain. The coming one is not reduced to the length of the wait: the promise speaks in the grammar of arrival, not abandonment.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that a delay you can feel proves the promise has failed; it holds the interval and the certainty together.
THE ROOT
χρονιεῖ
chroniei
GROWS FROM
χρονίζω (chronizō), from χρόνος (chronos)
To spend time, linger, or be delayed; its stem is tied to time itself.
“tarry” in this verse is chroniei. The word for delay carries the sense of time stretching out. The verse acknowledges an interval while declaring that time will not hold the arrival back.
ALSO GROWS
chronos: Time, or a span of time
χρόνος
The verb for delay grows from the word for time, making the interval part of the verse’s own language.
chronikos: Pertaining to time; temporal
χρονικός
This related form keeps the focus on time, the dimension in which waiting is experienced.
ὁ ἐρχόμενος
ho erchomenos
GROWS FROM
ἔρχομαι (erchomai), stem ἐρχ-
To come, go, or arrive.
“he that shall come” in this verse is ho erchomenos. The KJV renders both this phrase and the next verb as “come,” but the Greek shifts from “the one coming” (ἐρχόμενος) to “he will arrive” (ἥξει, from ἥκω). The wording holds the identity of the coming one together with the certainty of his arrival.
ALSO GROWS
eiserchomai: To enter, literally to come in
εἰσέρχομαι
The same verb for coming combines with a prefix to describe movement inward.
exerchomai: To go out, literally to come out
ἐξέρχομαι
The same verb also describes movement outward, showing how its sense of coming or going takes direction from its context.
THE PATTERN
A promised arrival can be certain while its appointed interval is still being experienced.
Is any thing too hard for the LORD? At the time appointed I will return unto thee, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.THE THREAD
For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.Hebrews echoes this promise’s closing words: what will come surely will not tarry. Habakkuk holds the felt interval beside the certainty of arrival, so waiting remains real without making the promise fail.
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