What Does Numbers 22:19 Mean in the King James?
Now therefore, I pray you, tarry ye also here this night, that I may know what the LORD will say unto me more.
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 Hebrew says, “what will the LORD add to speak with me”, “more” is the act of adding, not just an amount.
THE MEANING
You can stand with a word already spoken and still ask what may be added. The request joins knowing with further speech: it seeks what the LORD will disclose in encounter. The words hold openness to further disclosure alongside the tension of asking again.
THE ROOT
יֹסֵף
yōsēp̄ from yāsap̄
GROWS FROM
יסף
to add, increase, or continue
The word rendered “more” is a form of the verb “to add”: Balaam asks what the LORD will add to speaking with him. English turns that action into a quantity, hiding the sense of an addition to speech already received.
ALSO GROWS
yāsap̄: to add, continue, or do again
יָסַף
This is the verb behind “more,” making the request one for what the LORD may add to his speech.
Yosef: he adds; may he add
יוֹסֵף
The name Joseph comes from this root, linking the verse’s “more” to the language of addition.
יָדַע
yādaʿ
GROWS FROM
ידע
to know, recognize, or perceive
The verb for “know” carries the sense of knowing through perception and encounter. Balaam seeks that knowing through what the LORD may add to his speech, so the verse joins knowing with disclosure.
ALSO GROWS
daʿat: knowledge or understanding
דַּעַת
This noun from the same root shows that knowing can become an apprehended understanding.
hôdîa: to make known or inform
הוֹדִיעַ
This causative form shows the other side of knowing: something is disclosed so it can be known.
THE PATTERN
Knowing the LORD is pictured as receiving what is disclosed through speech and shown as a way.
And she called his name Joseph; and said, The LORD shall add to me another son.Now therefore, I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, shew me now thy way, that I may know thee, that I may find grace in thy sight: and consider that this nation is thy people.And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.THE THREAD
Now therefore, I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, shew me now thy way, that I may know thee, that I may find grace in thy sight: and consider that this nation is thy people.Both verses use ידע (yada, know or perceive): Balaam waits to know what the LORD may add to his speech, while Moses asks to see the LORD’s way so he may know him. The shared root makes spoken disclosure and a shown way two forms of encounter.
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