What Does Numbers 1:11 Mean in the King James?
Of Benjamin; Abidan the son of Gideoni.
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
This census line does more than count a tribe: its names carry lineage and nature inside the count.
THE MEANING
You are seen here in layers: belonging to a people does not erase your personal name or the line you come from. Benjamin carries “son of the right hand,” and Abidan carries “my father is judge.” Each name remains distinct inside the count.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that being counted makes you interchangeable: this line preserves the tribe, the person, and his father by name.
THE ROOT
יָמִין
yamin
GROWS FROM
ימן
y-m-n
right side, right hand
בִּנְיָמִין (Binyamin, Benjamin) joins בֵּן (ben, son) to יָמִין (yamin, right hand). The name holds lineage and orientation together, and a related word for a Benjamite preserves the same sound-family.
ALSO GROWS
yemini: of the right hand; also, a Benjamite
יְמִינִי
The word links Benjamin’s name to the identity of his descendants.
teman: south
תֵּימָן
The directional word is associated with the right-hand side when facing east, extending the root’s spatial sense.
דָּן
dan
GROWS FROM
דין
judge, decide, render judgment
אֲבִידָן (Abidan, “my father is judge”) joins אָבִי (avi, my father) with דָּן (dan, he judges). The name carries judgment as part of a family identity, while its root also names the judgment itself.
ALSO GROWS
din: judgment
דִּין
It makes explicit the judgment carried in Abidan’s name.
dayyan: judge
דַּיָּן
This related form names the one who renders judgment, echoing the judge within Abidan.
THE PATTERN
Scripture holds people as named persons, not anonymous totals.
Now these are the names of the children of Israel, which came into Egypt; every man and his household came with Jacob.But now thus saith the LORD that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine.Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven.THE THREAD
And it came to pass, as her soul was in departing, (for she died) that she called his name Ben-oni: but his father called him Benjamin.Genesis places two meanings beside one another: Rachel calls him Benoni, “son of my sorrow,” and his father calls him Benjamin, “son of the right hand.” Numbers carries that name into the tribe’s count, with both grief and the changed naming still held inside it.
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