What Does Numbers 19:15 Mean in the King James?
And every open vessel, which hath no covering bound upon it, is unclean.
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 verse makes cleanness hinge on attachment: the covering must be joined firmly over the opening.
THE MEANING
A vessel with no covering fastened over its opening is unclean. Where death’s impurity is present, the opening leaves the vessel exposed; it is not protected simply because it holds nothing.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that an empty vessel stays untouched: an uncovered opening is already exposed to impurity.
THE ROOT
צָמִיד
ṣāmîḏ
GROWS FROM
צמד
ṣāmaḏ
To bind, join, or attach.
“covering bound” in this verse is ṣāmîḏ. The word translated “covering” means a lid fastened to the vessel; its root means to join or attach. The verse locates the difference between protected and exposed in whether the covering is actually bound to the vessel.
ALSO GROWS
ṣāmaḏ: To bind, join, or attach.
צָמַד
The verb makes clear that the covering is fastened to the vessel, not merely resting over it.
ṣemeḏ: A pair or yoke: things joined together.
צֶמֶד
This related word carries the root’s sense of joining, echoing the attachment that closes the vessel’s opening.
פָּתוּחַ
pātûaḥ
GROWS FROM
פתח
pātaḥ
To open or loosen.
The same root names an opening or entrance, making the vessel’s mouth a point of access. Its exposure is not incidental: what is open can admit what the covering would keep out.
ALSO GROWS
pātaḥ: To open.
פָּתַח
The verb names the opening that leaves the vessel accessible.
pétaḥ: An entrance or doorway.
פֶּתַח
A doorway is a passage between inside and outside, just as the vessel’s opening is a threshold for contact.
THE PATTERN
A boundary governs what can enter and alter what a vessel contains.
And every earthen vessel, whereinto any of them falleth, whatsoever is in it shall be unclean; and ye shall break it.He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down, and without walls.Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,THE THREAD
And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder; so he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open.The same Hebrew root פתח (pātaḥ, “to open”) underlies the open vessel here and “he shall open” in Isaiah. In both verses, opening and shutting determine access; Isaiah makes that control explicit.
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