What Does Numbers 23:26 Mean in the King James?
But Balaam answered and said unto Balak, Told not I thee, saying, All that the LORD speaketh, that I must do?
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 root for “speaking” also gives the word for “matter,” joining what the LORD says to the deed Balaam does.
THE MEANING
When another voice presses for a different outcome, your action remains answerable to what the LORD speaks. The verse holds word and deed together: what is spoken sets the matter being done.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that pressure from another person can make the LORD’s word negotiable.
THE ROOT
יְדַבֵּר
yedabber
GROWS FROM
ד־ב־ר
d-b-r
speak; word, matter
“speaketh” in this verse is yedabber. The verb יְדַבֵּר (yedabber, “speaks”) belongs to the same root as דָּבָר (davar, “word” or “matter”). That shared seed lets the verse hold speech and the matter acted upon together.
ALSO GROWS
davar: word, matter, affair
דָּבָר
The noun can name both an utterance and the matter under discussion, making the LORD’s speech the content Balaam carries out.
dibber: spoke, declared
דִּבֵּר
This is another form of the root’s speaking verb; here, what is spoken becomes the direct object of the action.
אֶעֱשֶׂה
e'eseh
GROWS FROM
ע־שׂ־ה
ʿ-ś-h
do, make
The clause says, in order, “all that the LORD speaks, it I will do.” The root עָשָׂה (asah, “do” or “make”) keeps the statement concrete: the spoken content is carried into action.
ALSO GROWS
ma'aseh: deed, act, work
מַעֲשֶׂה
This noun names the deed itself, echoing the verse’s movement from what is spoken to what is done.
asiyah: action, doing
עֲשִׂיָּה
This form names the act of doing, keeping the focus on the deed that follows the LORD’s word.
THE PATTERN
What the LORD speaks and what is done belong together: the word sets the content and course of the deed.
God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.THE THREAD
So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.Isaiah calls the sent utterance דָּבָר (davar, “word” or “matter”), from the same root as יְדַבֵּר (yedabber, “speaks”) here. That shared seed links Balaam’s statement to Isaiah’s picture of a spoken word accomplishing the work for which it is sent.
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