What Does Numbers 14:15 Mean in the King James?
Now if thou shalt kill all this people as one man, then the nations which have heard the fame of thee will speak, 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 same Hebrew root means both “heard” and “fame”: a reputation becomes the report left behind by what is done.
THE MEANING
What is done to people becomes part of what others say about the power behind it. Here, the possibility of destroying an entire people becomes a judgment spoken by the nations who already know God’s reputation.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that a powerful name can remain untouched by how those under its power are treated.
THE ROOT
שָׁמְעוּ
shameʿu
GROWS FROM
שמע
sh-m-ʿ
To hear, listen, or receive a report.
“heard / fame” in this verse is shameʿu. The verb “heard” and the noun “fame” grow from the same root: fame is what gets heard. The verse ties the nations’ account of God to what they hear has been done.
ALSO GROWS
shamaʿ: Hear, listen
שָׁמַע
This is the verb behind “heard”; the nations’ knowledge arrives through listening to a report.
shemuʿah: Report, news
שְׁמוּעָה
A report is something heard and passed on, making “fame” an account that can be reshaped by what happens.
shemaʿ: Report, reputation
שֵׁמַע
This noun makes the connection explicit: reputation is carried as a report among those who hear.
THE PATTERN
What is done becomes the report through which others read the name behind it.
For we have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red sea for you, when ye came out of Egypt; and what ye did unto the two kings of the Amorites, that were on the other side Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom ye utterly destroyed.Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing: then said they among the heathen, The LORD hath done great things for them.For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you, as it is written.THE THREAD
For we have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red sea for you, when ye came out of Egypt; and what ye did unto the two kings of the Amorites, that were on the other side Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom ye utterly destroyed.Joshua 2:10 uses the same שמע root when Rahab says, “we have heard,” then names the acts that formed the report. It makes the root’s logic visible: what is done becomes what others hear.
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