What Does Numbers 12:1 Mean in the King James?
And Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married: for he had married an Ethiopian woman.
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 Cushite woman is named twice as the reason, while the speech is directed against Moses.
THE MEANING
The verse distinguishes the stated reason from the person targeted: the Cushite woman is the reason given, and Moses is the one spoken against. Her identity is repeated, so her origin is central to the complaint. That dynamic remains visible whenever someone’s belonging is used to make an attack on another person sound like a concern about family.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that a complaint about someone’s marriage is automatically separate from an attack on that person is undone here: the verse calls the speech “against Moses” and gives the woman’s Cushite identity as its stated cause.
THE ROOT
וַתְּדַבֵּר
vatdaber
GROWS FROM
ד־ב־ר
Speak, declare; the root also forms the word for a word or matter.
“spake against” in this verse is vatdaber. The Hebrew uses the verb from ד־ב־ר in a phrase directed “against Moses.” Its related word for a “matter” or “thing” adds a layer: this speech makes Moses and the woman’s identity the matter at hand.
ALSO GROWS
davar: Word, statement, matter, or thing.
דָּבָר
Speech becomes a matter with Moses as its target and the woman’s identity as its stated cause.
dibber: To speak or declare.
דִּבֵּר
This is the verbal root expressed in the phrase translated “spake against.”
לָקַח
laqach
GROWS FROM
ל־ק־ח
Take or receive.
The verse uses the concrete verb לָקַח in a marriage expression, and repeats it. Beneath “married,” the wording holds the repeated action of taking a wife in view.
ALSO GROWS
laqach: To take or receive.
לָקַח
The verb appears twice in the verse for Moses taking the woman.
laqach ishah: To take a woman as a wife; an expression for marrying.
לָקַח אִשָּׁה
This marriage expression makes the action concrete while the verse repeats it for emphasis.
מֹשֶׁה
Mosheh
GROWS FROM
מ־שׁ־ה
Draw out.
Exodus 2:10 connects Moses’ name to being drawn out of the water. That name is carried into this verse, where Moses is the person the speech targets.
ALSO GROWS
mashah: To draw out.
מָשָׁה
The verb names the action associated with Moses’ name.
Mosheh: Moses; the name linked in Exodus 2:10 to being drawn out.
מֹשֶׁה
The name in this verse carries that earlier meaning with it.
THE PATTERN
A complaint about someone’s conduct can open into a contest over who has standing to speak.
And they said, Hath the LORD indeed spoken only by Moses? hath he not spoken also by us? And the LORD heard it.And when Peter was come up to Jerusalem, they that were of the circumcision contended with him, Saying, Thou wentest in to men uncircumcised, and didst eat with them.Then again called they the man that was blind, and said unto him, Give God the praise: we know that this man is a sinner. He answered and said, Whether he be a sinner or no, I know not: one thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see.THE THREAD
And the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. And she called his name Moses: and she said, Because I drew him out of the water.Exodus connects Moses’ name to the Hebrew verb מָשָׁה (mashah), “draw out.” The name carried in Numbers 12:1 holds that earlier story within the sentence.
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