What Does Numbers 22:39 Mean in the King James?
And Balaam went with Balak, and they came unto Kirjath-huzoth.
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
Kirjath-huzoth means “city of streets,” so the place-name carries the encounter into shared, open space.
THE MEANING
You move alongside another person into a shared space; the name of the destination gives that arrival an open, public character. What takes place here stands among the streets, where others can encounter it.
THE ROOT
חוּצוֹת
ḥutsōt
GROWS FROM
חוּץ
ḥ-w-ṣ
Outside; the exterior or open space.
The KJV leaves the place-name untranslated, so its sense of openness stays hidden. Huzoth comes from ḥuts, “outside”: this is the city of streets or open spaces, where what is enclosed meets what is exposed.
ALSO GROWS
ḥuts: Outside; the open or exterior space.
חוּץ
This is the seed in the place-name, marking the destination as open space.
ḥutsah: Outward; to the outside.
חוּצָה
This form makes the root’s movement visible: from an interior toward open space.
ḥutsot: Streets; open spaces.
חוּצוֹת
This plural form appears in Kirjath-huzoth and gives the destination its name.
THE PATTERN
Scripture repeatedly places consequential voices and encounters in shared spaces where others can hear or witness them.
Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets:What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light: and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops.Therefore disputed he in the synagogue with the Jews, and with the devout persons, and in the market daily with them that met with him.THE THREAD
Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets:Kirjath-huzoth contains חוּצוֹת (ḥutsot, “streets/open spaces”), from חוּץ (ḥuts, “outside”). Proverbs uses that same root in “without,” then places Wisdom’s voice in the streets, so the place-name’s openness becomes a setting where a voice can be heard publicly.
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