What Does Numbers 16:42 Mean in the King James?

And it came to pass, when the congregation was gathered against Moses and against Aaron, that they looked toward the tabernacle of the congregation: and, behold, the cloud covered it, and the glory of the LORD appeared.

Numbers 16:42 · 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.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

As the cloud covers the dwelling, the LORD’s ⁨כָּבוֹד⁩ (kavod, weight and glory) appears at the center of gathered hostility.

THE MEANING

When opposition gathers around you, the dwelling becomes the focus: cloud covers it, and the LORD’s weight appears. Hostility and divine presence occupy the same moment; one does not erase the other.

THE ROOT

כָּבוֹד

kavod

GROWS FROM

כבד

k-b-d

To be heavy or weighty; by extension, to carry honor or importance.

English can make “glory” sound like brightness or spectacle, while ⁨כָּבוֹד⁩ (kavod, weight) carries the sense of substantial presence. Here that weight appears as the cloud covers the dwelling, right in the midst of the crowd’s opposition.

ALSO GROWS

kaved: Heavy, weighty

כָּבֵד

This branch makes the concrete image inside “glory” visible: the LORD’s presence carries weight.

kibbed: To honor, give weight to

כִּבֵּד

To honor is to treat someone as weighty; the verse presents the LORD’s presence as the weight that commands attention.

kavod: Weight, honor, glory

כָּבוֹד

The verse’s word for “glory” holds together visible presence and weight rather than reducing the moment to brightness alone.

THE PATTERN

The LORD’s dwelling becomes the point where cloud and divine weight make presence visible.

Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.

Exodus 40:34 · KJVCloud covers the dwelling as the LORD’s presence fills it, making the hidden weight visible.

And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

John 1:14 · KJVThe divine presence is encountered dwelling among people, and its weight is seen.

THE THREAD

So that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud: for the glory of the LORD had filled the house of the LORD.

1 Kings 8:11 · KJV

The same Hebrew ⁨כָּבוֹד⁩ (kavod, weight and glory) appears here with the cloud filling the LORD’s dwelling. Its weight is so fully present that the priests cannot stand to minister.

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