What Does Numbers 21:14 Mean in the King James?

Wherefore it is said in the book of the wars of the LORD, What he did in the Red sea, and in the brooks of Arnon,

Numbers 21:14 · 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.

THE KEY

What the LORD does becomes readable twice: in a book of wars and in the named waters carried into the account.

THE MEANING

This verse joins conflict, memory, and place: the LORD’s wars are recounted in a book and tied to waters named in the account. The reader meets testimony that can be located and told again.

THE ROOT

סֵפֶר

sefer

GROWS FROM

ספר

s-p-r

Count, recount, relate.

Sefer grows from the root ⁨ספר⁩, which carries the sense of counting and recounting. Its branches show a book as a recountable witness: the LORD’s wars are held in words that can be told again.

ALSO GROWS

saphar: Count, recount, relate.

סָפַר

This verb makes the book’s record an act of telling what has happened.

sippur: A telling, story, or narrative.

סִפּוּר

This branch connects the written book with an account that can be carried forward in speech.

THE PATTERN

The LORD’s acts amid conflict become testimony that can be preserved and told again.

And the LORD said unto Moses, Write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua: for I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.

Exodus 17:14 · KJVA conflict is joined to a written record and an account spoken aloud.

We will not hide them from their children, shewing to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done.

Psalm 78:4 · KJVThe LORD’s works are preserved by being told to the next generation.

And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.

Revelation 12:11 · KJVConflict and testimony remain joined: overcoming is carried in the word of what has been witnessed.

THE THREAD

And the LORD said unto Moses, Write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua: for I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.

Exodus 17:14 · KJV

Both verses use ⁨סֵפֶר⁩ (sefer, book), from ⁨ספר⁩ (s-p-r), the root of counting and recounting. Numbers places the LORD’s wars in a book; Exodus makes the connection explicit by joining a written record to the act of rehearsing it aloud.

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