What Does Joel 1:3 Mean in the King James?
Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation.
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 Hebrew word for “tell” shares its root with “count” and “book,” making this a spoken account carried from one generation to the next.
THE MEANING
You stand within a chain of telling: what reaches you is carried onward into the lives that follow you. The verse treats memory as an account spoken across generations, remaining present beyond those who first heard it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
An account does not belong only to the generation that first witnessed it; its telling can carry it forward.
THE ROOT
סַפְּרוּ
sapperu
GROWS FROM
ספר
s-p-r
To count or enumerate; by extension, to recount or relate.
“Tell” in this verse is sapperu. The Hebrew verb carries the sense of recounting, while its branch סֵפֶר (sefer) means a book or written record. The verse presents telling as an account spoken forward, generation after generation.
ALSO GROWS
sefer: Book; written record.
סֵפֶר
The spoken telling carries an account much as a record holds it, allowing it to pass through time.
mispar: Number; count.
מִסְפָּר
The root’s counting sense gives recounting the shape of an ordered account, not merely passing along a sound.
mesapperim: They recount or declare.
מְסַפְּרִים
This form appears in Psalm 19:1, where the heavens declare; the same root links that ongoing telling with the generations in Joel.
THE PATTERN
A received account stays alive as it is recounted and entrusted to another generation.
And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.We will not hide them from their children, shewing to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done.And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.THE THREAD
To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.Joel’s “tell” is סַפְּרוּ (sapperu), while Psalm 19’s “declare” is מְסַפְּרִים (mesapperim); both come from ספר (saphar), to count or recount. The same root joins human memory carried forward with the heavens’ ongoing telling.
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