What Does Numbers 25:6 Mean in the King James?

And, behold, one of the children of Israel came and brought unto his brethren a Midianitish woman in the sight of Moses, and in the sight of all the congregation of the children of Israel, who were weeping before the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.

Numbers 25:6 · 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.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

A man brings a Midianite woman near while the whole assembly weeps; shared grief does not make them a single will.

THE MEANING

The verse places you inside a public fracture: one man brings a Midianite woman near his brothers while the assembly weeps at the tent entrance. Moses (⁨מֹשֶׁה⁩, Moshe, “drawn out”) is among those who see it; the woman’s presence is explicit, but her own speech is absent. Shared grief does not absorb every action in the gathering into one intent.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the belief that a community’s visible grief means everyone present is moving with the same intent.

THE ROOT

וַיַּקְרֵב

wayyaqrev

GROWS FROM

קרב

q-r-b

To approach or draw near; in this form, to bring near.

The English “brought” can sound like simple transport, but the Hebrew verb means “brought near.” Its root also names closeness and drawing near, making proximity the charged action: he brings her near his brothers while the community weeps at the tent entrance.

ALSO GROWS

qorban: Drawing near; an approach offering.

קָרְבָּן

This branch carries the same seed of bringing near, linking the verb’s movement with the language of approach.

qarov: Near, close.

קָרוֹב

This word names closeness from the same root, showing that the verb describes a movement into proximity.

THE PATTERN

A gathered community is made up of distinct responses to acts unfolding in its shared space.

Now when Ezra had prayed, and when he had confessed, weeping and casting himself down before the house of God, there assembled unto him out of Israel a very great congregation of men and women and children: for the people wept very sore.

Ezra 10:1 · KJVEzra’s public grief gathers a whole community into the same space, showing how one person’s act can draw a collective response.

And there were some that had indignation within themselves, and said, Why was this waste of the ointment made?

Mark 14:4 · KJVIn a gathered house, some respond to a woman’s visible act with indignation, revealing that those present do not share one response.

And kept back part of the price, his wife also being privy to it, and brought a certain part, and laid it at the apostles’ feet.

Acts 5:2 · KJVAnanias’s act unfolds at the apostles’ feet within the community’s life, while the next verses expose the private intention inside the public gesture.

THE THREAD

But it is good for me to draw near to God: I have put my trust in the Lord GOD, that I may declare all thy works.

Psalm 73:28 · KJV

Numbers uses ⁨קרב⁩ (qarab, “draw near”) for the man’s bringing of the woman near his brothers; Psalm 73:28 uses the same root for drawing near to God. The shared seed makes nearness audible as movement, while the different objects of that movement give each scene its meaning.

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