What Does Numbers 10:22 Mean in the King James?
And the standard of the camp of the children of Ephraim set forward according to their armies: and over his host was Elishama the son of Ammihud.
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 standard makes this people recognizable as they move, carrying their identity into the larger procession.
THE MEANING
This verse places you in a movement that remains ordered without becoming anonymous: each company carries a distinct identity within a larger procession. Ephraim, whose name bears the language of fruitfulness, advances under its own standard and with a named leader. Belonging, distinction, and forward motion hold together.
THE ROOT
דֶּגֶל
degel
GROWS FROM
ד־ג־ל
d-g-l
In biblical usage, this word family centers on a banner or standard and on being marked out by one.
A standard does more than identify a group at rest: it makes that group recognizable in motion. The word family also describes what is distinguished or bannered, linking a people’s identity to the signal they move under.
ALSO GROWS
degel: A banner or standard.
דֶּגֶל
This is the word used for the signal that marks Ephraim’s place in the procession.
dagul: Marked out or conspicuous, as in Song of Solomon 5:10.
דָּגוּל
The related form shows how a banner makes someone or something stand out from the surrounding multitude.
וַיִּסַּע
vayyissaʿ
GROWS FROM
נ־ס־ע
n-s-ʿ
To set out, depart, or travel.
“set forward” in this verse is vayyissaʿ. The movement is expressed by the same word family used for a journey or stage of travel. Here, the standard advances as part of an ordered journey, so identity travels with the people rather than staying behind.
ALSO GROWS
nasaʿ: To depart or travel.
נָסַע
It names the act of setting the camp in motion.
massaʿ: A journey or one of its stages.
מַסָּע
This noun makes the movement a continuing journey with identifiable stages, not a single unshaped rush.
אֶפְרַיִם
Efrayim
GROWS FROM
פ־ר־ה
p-r-h
To bear fruit or become fruitful.
Ephraim’s name carries the language of fruitfulness, as Joseph’s explanation in Genesis 41:52 makes clear. Here that fruitfulness is part of a people in motion, with a place and identity within the wider formation.
ALSO GROWS
parah: To bear fruit or increase.
פָּרָה
This verb supplies the fruitfulness carried in Ephraim’s name.
peri: Fruit or produce.
פְּרִי
The related noun makes the name’s seed image concrete: fruitfulness is something that appears and grows.
THE PATTERN
A people move together when a shared identity makes their direction recognizable.
On the west side shall be the standard of the camp of Ephraim according to their armies: and the captain of the sons of Ephraim shall be Elishama the son of Ammihud.We will rejoice in thy salvation, and in the name of our God we will set up our banners: the LORD fulfil all thy petitions.And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice.THE THREAD
We will rejoice in thy salvation, and in the name of our God we will set up our banners: the LORD fulfil all thy petitions.The Hebrew word translated “banners” comes from the same דגל (d-g-l, banner or standard) word family as “standard” here. In both verses, the banner makes a people’s shared identity visible; in the psalm, that signal stands alongside the name of God and the hope of deliverance.
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