What Does Numbers 14:20 Mean in the King James?

And the LORD said, I have pardoned according to thy word:

Numbers 14:20 · KJV

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

Pardon releases the charge without pretending the breach has no consequences.

THE MEANING

The plea receives a real answer: pardon releases the charge. Yet the text still holds the consequences in view, so release does not erase what the breach has set in motion.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

This undoes the belief that true pardon must make consequences disappear: guilt can be released while the effects of the breach remain.

THE ROOT

סָלַחְתִּי

sālaḥtî

GROWS FROM

סלח

to pardon, forgive

The Hebrew uses one root-family for the declaration “I have pardoned” and for forgiveness named elsewhere. English gives the action and the state different forms, while the Hebrew connects them at the root.

ALSO GROWS

sālaḥtî: I have pardoned

סָלַחְתִּי

This is the verb Moses’ plea receives as an answer: pardon is granted.

seliḥāh: forgiveness

סְלִיחָה

This noun names forgiveness from the same root, linking this declaration to forgiveness as a continuing reality.

THE PATTERN

Pardon meets an appeal while wrongdoing and its consequences remain visible.

And he said, If now I have found grace in thy sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray thee, go among us; for it is a stiffnecked people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for thine inheritance.

Exodus 34:9 · KJVPardon is asked for alongside a plain acknowledgment of the people’s wrongdoing.

Thou answeredst them, O LORD our God: thou wast a God that forgavest them, though thou tookest vengeance of their inventions.

Psalm 99:8 · KJVForgiveness is real even as the consequences of their actions remain in view.

Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment, and cast lots.

Luke 23:34 · KJVForgiveness is spoken while the violence is still unfolding, without pretending the harm is unreal.

THE THREAD

But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared.

Psalm 130:4 · KJV

The Hebrew noun for “forgiveness,” ⁨סְלִיחָה⁩ (seliḥāh), grows from the same root, ⁨סלח⁩, as “I have pardoned” in Numbers. The root connects the pardon declared in this moment with forgiveness as something held with God.

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