What Does Numbers 18:31 Mean in the King James?
And ye shall eat it in every place, ye and your households: for it is your reward for your service in the tabernacle of the congregation.
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 reward for service is not an abstraction: it becomes food that the workers and their households can eat wherever they are.
THE MEANING
Here, service has a tangible return: its reward is food shared by the workers and their households in every place. The verse holds labor, provision, and household life together; the reward is something received and eaten.
THE ROOT
שָׂכָר
sachar
GROWS FROM
שכר
Wages, hire, or payment for work.
The word rendered “reward” is also used for wages: it names a worker’s due, not merely an abstract prize. Here that due is concrete food, shared with the household.
ALSO GROWS
sakhir: A hired worker
שָׂכִיר
This related word keeps the idea of reward tied to a person who has worked.
sachar: To hire or pay wages
שָׂכַר
The verb shows the same root at work as an exchange for labor, clarifying the practical force of “reward.”
עֲבֹדָה
avodah
GROWS FROM
עבד
Work or service.
“Service” belongs to the same root as the words for working and servant. The verse names the Levites’ work plainly, then names food as its material return.
ALSO GROWS
avad: To work or serve
עָבַד
The verb makes clear that the service in the verse is labor carried out.
eved: Servant or worker
עֶבֶד
This related noun links the work to the people who perform it and receive its provision.
אָכַל
akhal
GROWS FROM
אכל
To eat or consume food.
“eat” in this verse is akhal. The reward is expressed through the act of eating: provision is not only assigned but consumed. Its reach extends to the household and to every place they are.
ALSO GROWS
ma'akhal: Food
מַאֲכָל
The related noun makes explicit what the workers receive to eat.
akhilah: Eating
אֲכִילָה
This noun keeps the focus on provision becoming nourishment through the act named in the verse.
THE PATTERN
Those who labor receive a tangible share in the provision connected to their work.
Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn.And in the same house remain, eating and drinking such things as they give: for the labourer is worthy of his hire. Go not from house to house.For the scripture saith, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn. And, The labourer is worthy of his reward.THE THREAD
And Laban said unto Jacob, Because thou art my brother, shouldest thou therefore serve me for nought? tell me, what shall thy wages be?Genesis uses שָׂכָר (sachar, wages), the same Hebrew word behind “reward” here. The shared word makes the link direct: the verse names provision as the worker’s due for service.
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