What Does Numbers 11:34 Mean in the King James?

And he called the name of that place Kibroth-hattaavah: because there they buried the people that lusted.

Numbers 11:34 · KJV

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 place is named “Graves of the Craving,” binding what the people desired to the ground where they are buried.

THE MEANING

Craving is not weightless: here, the people who desire are buried, and their appetite becomes part of the place’s name. The verse holds that cost in view without hiding the death.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the belief that an appetite is harmless simply because it is felt inwardly.

THE ROOT

הִתְאַוּוּ

hit'avvu

GROWS FROM

אוה

ʾ-w-h

to desire or crave

The Hebrew verb belongs to a root for wanting or craving; here it describes desire for food, while the English “lusted” can suggest a narrower sense. The place-name repeats this root in its noun form, making the craving part of the place’s remembered identity.

ALSO GROWS

ta'avah: desire, craving

תַּאֲוָה

This noun appears in Kibroth-hattaavah, the place-name that joins the craving to the graves.

tit'avveh: you shall desire, you shall crave

תִּתְאַוֶּה

Deuteronomy 5:21 uses this form for desire, showing the same root at work beyond this scene.

וַיִּקְבְּרוּ

wayyiqberu

GROWS FROM

קבר

q-b-r

to bury, place in a grave

Hebrew connects the act “they buried” with the place-name’s “graves” through the same root. The event is carried forward in the name of the place.

ALSO GROWS

qever: grave, tomb

קֶבֶר

This singular noun shares the root behind the verse’s verb “buried.”

qivrot: graves

קִבְרוֹת

This plural form begins the place-name Kibroth-hattaavah: “graves of the craving.”

THE PATTERN

Craving can carry consequences that reach beyond the moment of wanting, and the text leaves those consequences visible.

So they did eat, and were well filled: for he gave them their own desire; They were not estranged from their lust. But while their meat was yet in their mouths, The wrath of God came upon them, and slew the fattest of them, and smote down the chosen men of Israel.

Psalm 78:29-31 · KJVThe appetite is met, yet the passage keeps its deadly consequence beside the satisfaction.

Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted.

1 Corinthians 10:6 · KJVThe verse makes craving in the wilderness a pattern whose consequences remain visible to readers now.

But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.

James 1:14-15 · KJVJames traces desire through its unfolding until it reaches death, making explicit the consequence this verse names through burial.

THE THREAD

But lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and tempted God in the desert.

Psalm 106:14 · KJV

Psalm 106 repeats the root ⁨אוה⁩ (ʾ-w-h), meaning “desire, crave,” in both a verb and a noun: they “craved a craving.” Numbers carries that same root into the place-name, joining the desire to the graves.

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