What Does Numbers 14:39 Mean in the King James?
And Moses told these sayings unto all the children of Israel: and the people mourned greatly.
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 spoken words land as shared, overwhelming grief.
THE MEANING
A word can reach an entire community and leave grief in its wake. Here the response is not hidden or measured: the people mourn greatly. Hearing what has been said and finding ease are not the same moment.
THE ROOT
וַיִּתְאַבְּלוּ
wayyit'abbelu
GROWS FROM
אבל
To mourn or lament.
“mourned” in this verse is wayyit'abbelu. The Hebrew verb comes from אָבַל (ʾāḇal), “to mourn.” Its related forms name both mourning itself and the mourner, showing grief as a condition that can fill a people as well as a person.
ALSO GROWS
ʾēvel: Mourning or lamentation.
אֵבֶל
It names the grief that the people express together.
ʾāvēl: A mourner; one who grieves.
אָבֵל
It shows the same root describing the person carrying the grief.
הַדְּבָרִים
haddevarim
GROWS FROM
דבר
To speak; a word, matter, or thing.
The Hebrew דָּבָר (dāḇār) can mean a spoken word or a matter. The “sayings” are not just sounds passing by: they arrive as something the people must face, and grief follows.
ALSO GROWS
dāḇār: A word, matter, or thing.
דָּבָר
It links what is spoken with the matter now before the people.
dibbēr: He spoke.
דִּבֵּר
It is the verb from the same root, tying Moses’ speaking directly to the words received.
THE PATTERN
When a word makes loss or separation real, grief can become the immediate response.
And Jacob rent his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his loins, and mourned for his son many days.But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions.Verily, verily, I say unto you, That ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice: and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy.THE THREAD
And Jacob rent his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his loins, and mourned for his son many days.Numbers uses וַיִּתְאַבְּלוּ (wayyit’abbelu, “they mourned”), from אָבַל (ʾāḇal, “to mourn”); Genesis uses a form of that same root for Jacob’s mourning. One verse shows grief filling a people after words; the other shows it lasting in one father for many days.
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