What Does Numbers 1:14 Mean in the King James?
Of Gad; Eliasaph the son of Deuel.
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
Even this census line names a person through tribe and family, while Eliasaph’s name carries the root of gathering.
THE MEANING
This verse holds Eliasaph in view through his tribe and his father, keeping a particular person within the gathered whole. His name is commonly understood as “my God has added,” carrying the sense of being brought into that whole.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Being counted means being reduced to an anonymous number; here the count preserves a person’s name and family ties.
THE ROOT
אֱלִיאָסָף
Eli'asaph
GROWS FROM
אסף
ʾ-s-p
Gather, collect, bring together.
Eliasaph joins El, “God,” with a name element from אסף, the root of gathering; the name is commonly understood as “my God has added.” The census makes that gathering visible by naming the person and his family place within the tribe.
ALSO GROWS
ʾāsaph: Gather, collect.
אָסַף
The root verb gives the name its image of bringing people together.
ʾāsīph: Ingathering, harvest.
אָסִיף
The harvest is gathered into one place, echoing how this census gathers people into a named whole.
דְּעוּאֵל
Deu'el
GROWS FROM
ידע
y-d-ʿ
Know, recognize, perceive.
Deuel is commonly understood as “knowledge of God,” with its knowledge element connected to ידע. Beside Eliasaph’s gathering, the father’s name carries a language of knowing: the verse holds this family in the count by name and relation.
ALSO GROWS
yādaʿ: Know, recognize, perceive through encounter.
יָדַע
This verb gives the name’s knowledge element the sense of personal recognition.
daʿat: Knowledge, understanding.
דַּעַת
This noun from ידע echoes the knowledge carried in Deuel’s name.
THE PATTERN
A gathered people remain particular, named and countable within the whole.
Take ye the sum of all the congregation of the children of Israel, after their families, by the house of their fathers, with the number of their names, every male by their polls;The LORD shall count, when he writeth up the people, that this man was born there. Selah.Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.THE THREAD
Gather my saints together unto me; those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.“Gather” translates אספו, from the same root אסף carried in Eliasaph’s name. The name’s gathering becomes an action in the verse: people are brought together unto God.
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