What Does Numbers 12:6 Mean in the King James?
And he said, Hear now my words: If there be a prophet among you, I the LORD will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream.
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 LORD “makes himself known” through encounter: vision and dream are ways that knowing arrives.
THE MEANING
Knowing the LORD is more than receiving information; it is an encounter that comes through seeing and hearing. The verse speaks now of vision and dream as places where the LORD makes himself known and speaks.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that divine knowing comes only through waking, literal instruction: this verse also names vision and dream as places of encounter.
THE ROOT
אֶתְוַדָּע
ʾetwaddaʿ
GROWS FROM
י־ד־ע
y-d-ʿ
To know, recognize, or perceive through encounter.
“make myself known” in this verse is ʾetwaddaʿ. The verb says the LORD makes himself known, not merely sends information about himself. In this verse, knowing takes the form of an encounter through vision and dream.
ALSO GROWS
yādaʿ: To know or recognize.
יָדַע
This is the root verb behind “make myself known,” linking the verse’s revelation to knowing by encounter.
daʿat: Knowledge or knowing.
דַּעַת
This noun from the same root shows that the encounter described here belongs to the language of knowing.
מַרְאָה
marʾeh
GROWS FROM
ר־א־ה
r-ʾ-h
To see, look, or perceive.
The word for vision grows from the verb “to see” and can also mean sight or appearance. The verse’s vision is therefore not just an idea about revelation; it is a way of seeing in which the LORD is made known.
ALSO GROWS
rāʾāh: To see or perceive.
רָאָה
This is the verb at the root of “vision,” making the perceptual dimension of the verse visible.
marʾeh: Sight, appearance, or vision.
מַרְאֶה
This related form holds seeing and what is seen together, illuminating vision as an encounter.
אֲדַבֶּר
ʾadabber
GROWS FROM
ד־ב־ר
d-b-r
To speak; the related noun can mean a word, matter, or thing.
The verb “speak” shares its root with דָּבָר (dāḇār), a word that can mean both “word” and “matter.” The verse places this speech within a dream, where the spoken word is part of the encounter through which the LORD is known.
ALSO GROWS
dāḇār: Word, matter, or thing.
דָּבָר
This noun from the same root shows how Hebrew speech and matter share a word family.
dibbēr: He spoke; to speak.
דִּבֵּר
This related form makes the speaking action explicit: the LORD’s knowing is accompanied by speech.
THE PATTERN
Divine self-disclosure reaches human perception through vision and dream as well as spoken words.
And God spake unto Israel in the visions of the night, and said, Jacob, Jacob. And he said, Here am I.In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon men, in slumberings upon the bed; Then he openeth the ears of men, and sealeth their instruction,And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams:THE THREAD
And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.The same root ידע (y-d-ʿ), “to know,” appears in Jeremiah’s promise that all will know the LORD. Numbers describes that knowing through a prophet’s vision and dream; Jeremiah opens the connection into knowing shared by all.
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