What Does Numbers 20:19 Mean in the King James?
And the children of Israel said unto him, We will go by the high way: and if I and my cattle drink of thy water, then I will pay for it: I will only, without doing any thing else, go through on my feet.
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 promise defines passage as bounded movement: stay on the raised road, pay for water used, and claim no more than a crossing requires.
THE MEANING
When your way runs through another’s boundary, the verse defines passage in exact terms: stay on the highway, pay for water you use, and cross on foot. The need to pass does not erase the boundary around another’s land or provision. Movement and restraint occupy the same request.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Needing to get through gives me a right to whatever lies along the way. The verse undoes that claim by making passage conditional on limits and payment for what is used.
THE ROOT
אֶעֱבֹרָה
e'evorah
GROWS FROM
עבר
ʿ-b-r
to cross over or pass across
“go through” in this verse is e'evorah. The Hebrew verb carries the sense of crossing a boundary. Its branches name both the crossing and what lies beyond, so the request is for passage through the land, not a claim to settle or possess it.
ALSO GROWS
ʿever: beyond; across; the far side
עֵבֶר
The same root frames the destination as the other side of a boundary.
ma'avar: a crossing or passage
מַעֲבָר
This branch names the crossing itself, echoing the request to pass through.
בַּמְסִלָּה
ba-mesillah
GROWS FROM
סלל
s-l-l
to raise or heap up; to make a raised route
The Hebrew term translated “high way” comes from a root meaning to raise or heap up, evoking a route made into the terrain. The promise to remain on that defined road makes the highway part of the boundary being respected.
ALSO GROWS
sollu: raise or prepare a highway
סֹלּוּ
This verb from the same root describes making a route passable.
mesillah: highway; raised road
מְסִלָּה
This is the road-word used here, with the sense of a made and defined route beneath it.
THE PATTERN
When passage touches another’s land or provision, the request marks limits and accounts for what it uses.
Let me pass through thy land: we will not turn into the fields, or into the vineyards; we will not drink of the waters of the well: but we will go along by the king’s high way, until we be past thy borders.Ye shall buy meat of them for money, that ye may eat; and ye shall also buy water of them for money, that ye may drink.Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honour to whom honour.THE THREAD
The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.The same Hebrew word for highway, מְסִלָּה (mesillah), appears here and in Isaiah’s desert image. Its root סלל (s-l-l), meaning to raise or heap up, opens the everyday promise to keep to a road into an image of a way made passable across difficult ground.
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