What Does Numbers 11:4 Mean in the King James?
And the mixt multitude that was among them fell a lusting: and the children of Israel also wept again, and said, Who shall give us flesh to eat?
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 Hebrew says they “craved a craving” and then “returned and wept”, appetite repeats itself until it feels like deprivation.
THE MEANING
A craving can spread until it feels like a shared need. The people return to tears and ask who will provide flesh; the doubled desire makes appetite seem like deprivation itself. The verse lets you see how want can narrow your inner world around what it cannot stop reaching for.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse loosens the belief that a want becomes a true need simply because it is intense or shared.
THE ROOT
וַיִּתְאַוּוּ תַּאֲוָה
vayyit'avvu ta'avah
GROWS FROM
אוה
Desire, long for
“fell a lusting” in this verse is vayyit'avvu ta'avah. The Hebrew stacks a verb and noun from the same root: they “desired a desire,” an intensified craving rather than a neutral request. The wording reveals how appetite can multiply itself before the people even name what they want.
ALSO GROWS
ta'avah: Craving, desire
תַּאֲוָה
This noun appears in the verse itself, repeating the desire already expressed by the verb.
tit'avveh: You shall desire or covet
תִּתְאַוֶּה
The same root describes desire reaching toward what the attention fixes on, whether food or something belonging to another.
וַיָּשֻׁבוּ
wayyashuvu
GROWS FROM
שׁוב
Return, turn back
The Hebrew behind “again” is a verb meaning “return”: they return and weep. English makes the repetition sound like mere frequency; Hebrew shows movement back into a familiar state.
ALSO GROWS
heshiv: Bring back, restore
הֵשִׁיב
This causative form shows the root can describe bringing something or someone back, not only returning oneself.
meshubah: Turning away, backsliding
מְשׁוּבָה
This branch shows how a return can become a recurring course, echoing the return to tears in the verse.
THE PATTERN
When desire is repeatedly fed by attention, it starts directing perception and action.
And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.But lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and tempted God in the desert.But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.THE THREAD
But lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and tempted God in the desert.Psalm 106 repeats the same Hebrew construction: the people “craved a craving” in the wilderness. The shared root makes the doubled desire visible as a recurring motion, not a one-time request.
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