What Does Numbers 26:14 Mean in the King James?

These are the families of the Simeonites, twenty and two thousand and two hundred.

Numbers 26:14 · 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.

THE KEY

The count names Simeon’s descendants with a name rooted in hearing, so the family roll carries the trace of being heard.

THE MEANING

Here, belonging appears as both a named family and a number. “Simeonite” carries the hearing-root within that identity: the counted people bear a name shaped by being heard.

THE ROOT

שִׁמְעֹנִי

Shim‘oni

GROWS FROM

שמע

sh-m-ʿ

Hear, listen, heed

“Simeonites” in this verse is Shim‘oni. The name Simeon grows from ⁨שמע⁩, “hear.” The same root appears in words for hearing and for a report that has been heard, so the census preserves a family name whose seed is hearing.

ALSO GROWS

shama: To hear, listen, or heed

שָׁמַע

This verb is the seed behind Simeon’s name and the hearing carried in the family label.

shemuah: A report or news; something heard

שְׁמוּעָה

The root can carry hearing into a message that becomes known, linking the act of hearing to what is received and remembered.

THE PATTERN

What is heard is carried forward, in a name, a remembered cry, or an answered prayer.

And she conceived again, and bare a son; and said, Because the LORD hath heard that I was hated, he hath therefore given me this son also: and she called his name Simeon.

Genesis 29:33 · KJVSimeon’s name is tied directly to the LORD hearing Leah, making the hearing-root in “Simeonites” explicit.

And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.

Exodus 2:24 · KJVThe groaning is heard and held in remembrance, showing hearing carried forward into action.

And said, Cornelius, thy prayer is heard, and thine alms are had in remembrance in the sight of God.

Acts 10:31 · KJVA prayer is heard and remembered, echoing the root’s movement from hearing to what remains known.

THE THREAD

And she conceived again, and bare a son; and said, Because the LORD hath heard that I was hated, he hath therefore given me this son also: and she called his name Simeon.

Genesis 29:33 · KJV

Leah names Simeon because the LORD has heard her; the name carries the root ⁨שמע⁩, “hear.” Numbers 26:14 gathers his descendants under that same name, so the family count still bears the sound of hearing.

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