What Does Numbers 13:1 Mean in the King James?
And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
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 word begins by addressing the one “drawn out” before it reveals what is to be done.
THE MEANING
The LORD’s word reaches you as an address before its content unfolds. The name Moses carries the Hebrew image of being drawn out, so the verse places the hearer in the image of emergence: a life brought into the open to receive what is spoken.
THE ROOT
וַיְדַבֵּר
vayedabber
GROWS FROM
דבר
d-b-r
to speak, utter a word
The same root gives דָּבָר (dābār), meaning “word,” “matter,” or “thing.” English can make “spake” sound like an empty preface; this root lets the spoken word carry the matter being spoken.
ALSO GROWS
dibbēr: spoke; communicated
דִּבֵּר
This is the verb form behind “spake,” so the verse presents speech as a direct address.
dābār: word, matter, thing
דָּבָר
The shared root holds the utterance and the matter spoken together.
מֹשֶׁה
Mōšeh
GROWS FROM
משה
m-sh-h
to draw out
The name Moses is read through the verb for drawing out, with its name-play pointing to being drawn from water. The one addressed bears the image of emergence: the word meets someone already marked as brought out.
ALSO GROWS
māšâ: to draw out
מָשָׁה
This verb supplies the image carried by the name Moses.
Mōšeh: Moses; the one drawn out in the name-play
מֹשֶׁה
The name links the person addressed with the act of being drawn out.
THE PATTERN
The divine word arrives as personal address before it unfolds as instruction.
And when the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I.And the LORD came, and stood, and called as at other times, Samuel, Samuel. Then Samuel answered, Speak; for thy servant heareth.And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?THE THREAD
With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches; and the similitude of the LORD shall he behold: wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?The same root דבר (dābar, “to speak”) appears in “I will speak” here and “spake” in Numbers 13:1. Numbers 12:8 opens the announcement further: the word arriving in verse 1 belongs to a direct address.
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