What Does Zechariah 12:14 Mean in the King James?
All the families that remain, every family apart, and their wives apart.
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 remnant is not a crowd: the verse repeats “apart” until each family and its wives have a distinct place within the shared grief.
THE MEANING
Shared grief does not make your experience interchangeable with everyone else’s. Each remaining family is named separately, and the wives are named separately too: the community holds a common mourning without erasing those boundaries.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that belonging to a grieving community requires everyone to grieve as one undifferentiated whole.
THE ROOT
לְבָד
levad
GROWS FROM
בדד
badad
To be separate or alone.
English gives “apart” as a simple divider; the root also carries the sense of being alone. Its repetition marks separation as the verse’s rhythm: each family, and then its wives, remains distinct within the mourning.
ALSO GROWS
badad: Alone, separately.
בָּדָד
The same root appears as a word for being alone, giving “apart” a sense of distinctness as well as division.
levaddo: By himself, alone.
לְבַדּוֹ
This form makes the separateness personal, echoing how the verse names families and wives in separate groups.
הַנִּשְׁאָרוֹת
hannish'arot
GROWS FROM
שאר
sha'ar
To remain or be left.
“remain” in this verse is hannish'arot. The word describes those who are left, while its related noun she’erit means “remnant.” The verse keeps that remnant from becoming an anonymous mass by naming its families one by one.
ALSO GROWS
she'erit: Remnant, what remains.
שְׁאֵרִית
It names the surviving remainder as a related form of the same root.
she'ar: Remainder, what is left.
שְׁאָר
This related form brings out the sense of what remains after others are gone.
THE PATTERN
A people can share one moment while each household and member keeps a distinct place within it.
Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house:And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it.THE THREAD
Israel then shall dwell in safety alone: the fountain of Jacob shall be upon a land of corn and wine; also his heavens shall drop down dew.Zechariah’s לְבָד (levad) and Deuteronomy’s בָּדָד (badad) share the root בדד, meaning to be separate or alone. Here it marks each family’s place within grief; in Deuteronomy, the same root describes dwelling in safety, showing how the surrounding words shape the feeling of being apart.
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