What Does Numbers 11:5 Mean in the King James?
We remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt freely; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlick:
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
“Freely” lets memory keep Egypt’s food while losing its cost: a constricting place can return as abundance.
THE MEANING
A familiar place can return to the mind as food and comfort while the conditions around it fade. The verse holds both together: remembered abundance and Mitzrayim, the place of constriction. What feels free at the table may still belong to a life held in narrowness.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie it dissolves is that remembered comfort proves a place was freeing: something can cost nothing at the table and still hold life in bondage.
THE ROOT
זָכַרְנוּ
zakharnu
GROWS FROM
זכר
zakar
To remember, call to mind, or mention.
“remember” in this verse is zakharnu. This root holds recollection and mention together: remembering brings something into present attention. Here, the meal grows vivid while Egypt’s constriction recedes, so memory is selecting what fills the present.
ALSO GROWS
zikkaron: Remembrance or a memorial.
זִכָּרוֹן
A memorial makes the past present again, as this list makes Egypt’s food vivid now.
zekher: A remembrance, mention, or memorial.
זֵכֶר
The same root can make something present by speaking of it; the remembered menu becomes the focus of the passage.
מִצְרַיִם
Mitsrayim
GROWS FROM
צרר
tsarar
To bind, press in, or constrict.
“Egypt” in this verse is Mitsrayim. Mitzrayim carries the image of narrow places, the two narrows. The listed abundance belongs to a name that evokes constriction, so plenty alone cannot establish spaciousness.
ALSO GROWS
tsar: Narrow or tight.
צַר
This sound-family gives the name Mitzrayim its image of confinement.
metzar: A narrow place or strait.
מֵצַר
The narrow place makes the contrast plain: food can be remembered as plentiful even when the surrounding life is constricted.
נֹאכַל
noʾkhal
GROWS FROM
אכל
akal
To eat or consume.
“eat” in this verse is noʾkhal. Hebrew uses this root for both eating and food, giving the memory the texture of a meal rather than an abstract idea of prosperity. The list is vivid and bodily, but it does not describe the whole life surrounding it.
ALSO GROWS
ʾokhel: Food or something eaten.
אֹכֶל
The noun keeps the remembered scene grounded in what is consumed.
maʾakhal: Food or provisions.
מַאֲכָל
The shared root links the act of eating with its provision, sharpening the remembered abundance.
THE PATTERN
Looking back can make a constricting past seem like lost comfort by keeping its provisions in view and its limits out of focus.
And the children of Israel said unto them, Would to God we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots, and when we did eat bread to the full; for ye have brought us forth into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger.Say not thou, What is the cause that the former days were better than these? for thou dost not enquire wisely concerning this.And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.THE THREAD
And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.The Hebrew root זכר (zakar), “remember,” appears in both verses. Here memory fixes on Egypt’s menu; in Exodus 2:24 it brings the covenant into view, showing how what is remembered can shape the present toward either return or release.
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