What Does Numbers 10:5 Mean in the King James?
When ye blow an alarm, then the camps that lie on the east parts shall go forward.
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 “alarm” is תְּרוּעָה (təruʿāh), a carrying shout that turns a signal into coordinated movement.
THE MEANING
The sound marks a moment of departure: the eastern camps set out first. Movement has an order, the signal comes, then the people positioned to lead move. The verse speaks now of readiness becoming motion through a cue the whole community can hear.
THE ROOT
תְּרוּעָה
təruʿāh
GROWS FROM
רוע
Raise a shout; make a loud, carrying sound.
The same noun can name an alarm blast or a shouted acclamation. Here it is a signal that gathers attention and marks the moment to move.
ALSO GROWS
rūaʿ: Shout aloud; raise a cry.
רוּעַ
The verb beneath the signal foregrounds the loud sound that makes the camp hear and respond.
təruʿāh: A shout, alarm blast, or acclamation.
תְּרוּעָה
In this verse it marks departure; elsewhere the same word can name a people’s shout of acclamation.
וְנָסְעוּ
wə-nāseʿū
GROWS FROM
נסע
Depart, pull away, set out on a journey.
The Hebrew rendered “go forward” describes setting out on a journey, with the departure from camp carried in the word. It makes this a concrete transition from encamped stillness to movement, rather than an abstract promise of progress.
ALSO GROWS
massāʿ: A journey or stage of travel.
מַסָּע
This related noun presents departure as one leg in an ordered journey.
masʿē: Journeys or stages of travel.
מַסְעֵי
The plural frames a people’s movement as a sequence of stages, rather than one undifferentiated advance.
קֵדְמָה
qēdmāh
GROWS FROM
קדם
Precede; be in front.
The word for east is related to words for what is in front or former. Here that echo places direction and departure order together: the eastern camps are the first to move at this signal.
ALSO GROWS
qédem: East, front, or antiquity.
קֶדֶם
Its range links the eastward direction with what lies in front or before.
miqqédem: From of old; from before.
מִקֶּדֶם
This form carries the same root into temporal precedence, extending the idea of “before” from space into time.
THE PATTERN
A clear, shared signal turns a waiting people into coordinated movement.
When ye blow an alarm the second time, then the camps that lie on the south side shall take their journey: they shall blow an alarm for their journeys.And it shall come to pass, that when they make a long blast with the ram’s horn, and when ye hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city shall fall down flat, and the people shall ascend up every man straight before him.For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?THE THREAD
And the LORD said unto Moses, Wherefore criest thou unto me? speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward:The words translated “shall go forward” here and “go forward” in Exodus come from the same root, נָסַע (nāsaʿ), meaning to set out or journey. In both verses, a people who are stopped receive the cue to depart.
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