What Does Numbers 15:2 Mean in the King James?
Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye be come into the land of your habitations, which I give unto you,
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 promised land is named not merely as territory to enter, but as a settled place that is already given.
THE MEANING
The verse holds arrival, belonging, and gift together: you come into a place of habitation that is given to you. The land is not only somewhere to reach; it is somewhere life can settle and remain.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that a place to belong must be secured entirely by your own strength is undone here: the dwelling is given.
THE ROOT
מוֹשְׁבֹתֵיכֶם
moshvoteikhem
GROWS FROM
ישב
y-sh-b
To sit, remain, or dwell; to take up a settled place.
The word translated habitations carries the sense of settled places, from the same seed as sitting and dwelling. The verse pictures the land not as blank territory, but as space where a people can take their place and remain.
ALSO GROWS
yashav: To sit, remain, or dwell.
יָשַׁב
The habitation grows from a verb of settling in, so the verse holds the place and the act of dwelling together.
moshav: A dwelling, seat, or settlement.
מוֹשָׁב
This branch names the settled place itself, showing that habitations are more than structures: they are places to remain.
yoshev: A dweller or inhabitant.
יוֹשֵׁב
This branch names a person by the act of dwelling, tying the people to the land they are given.
נֹתֵן
noten
GROWS FROM
נתן
n-t-n
To give, put, or set in place.
“give” in this verse is noten. This root holds giving together with putting or setting. The land is given as a real placement: the gift locates a people somewhere they can settle.
ALSO GROWS
mattanah: A gift or present.
מַתָּנָה
This branch makes the verse’s giving concrete: the land is received as a gift.
nethinim: Given or dedicated ones.
נְתִינִים
This branch carries the sense of being assigned or placed, echoing how the given land becomes a place for its people.
THE PATTERN
Provision takes the form of a place where life can settle and be sustained.
For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever.Trust in the LORD, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed.In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.THE THREAD
One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to enquire in his temple.The word translated dwell comes from the same Hebrew root as habitations in Numbers. The shared root makes settlement more than arrival: the place given becomes a place of continuing presence.
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