What Does Numbers 23:22 Mean in the King James?
God brought them out of Egypt; he hath as it were the strength of an unicorn.
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
God’s exit from the narrow place is paired with wild-ox force, so deliverance appears as emergence into strength.
THE MEANING
This verse speaks now wherever life feels narrowed: being brought out is an opening through which strength becomes visible. Mitzrayim (מִצְרַיִם, Mitzrayim: the two narrows) names constriction, while the wild-ox image places force beside the exit.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that constriction gets the last word: the verse pairs the way out with force rather than permanent diminishment.
THE ROOT
מוֹצִיאָם
motzi'am
GROWS FROM
י־צ־א
To go out or emerge; in the causative form, to cause someone to go out.
“brought them out” in this verse is motzi'am. The Hebrew marks this as the act of making an exit: God is the one causing them to go out. Set beside Mitzrayim (מִצְרַיִם, Mitzrayim: the two narrows), deliverance becomes a passage from constriction, with wild-ox force placed on the other side.
ALSO GROWS
yatsa: To go out, come forth, emerge.
יָצָא
The people’s deliverance is an emergence, not merely a change in status.
hotsi: To cause to go out; to bring out.
הוֹצִיא
This causative form shows God actively opening the way out.
yetsi'ah: An exit or going out.
יְצִיאָה
The root makes the exit itself visible: there is a passage from the narrowed place.
THE PATTERN
Deliverance carries people out of constriction and into a wider life.
He brought me forth also into a large place; he delivered me, because he delighted in me.He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and brake their bands in sunder.Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:THE THREAD
And it came to pass the selfsame day, that the LORD did bring the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their armies.The same Hebrew root, יצא (yatsa: to go out, emerge), underlies “did bring … out.” Numbers 23:22 pairs that Exodus with the image of wild-ox force, showing the exit alongside strength.
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