What Does Numbers 26:20 Mean in the King James?
And the sons of Judah after their families were; of Shelah, the family of the Shelanites: of Pharez, the family of the Pharzites: of Zerah, the family of the Zarhites.
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 breach carried in Perez’s name does not end the line; it becomes a family counted among Judah’s clans.
THE MEANING
This verse names three family lines within Judah: Shelah, Perez, and Zerah. Perez’s name carries the sense of a breach or breaking through, and here that name belongs to a whole clan. The moment of breaking through remains visible in the family’s name as generations are counted.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A breach can only end a line. Here, the name Perez is carried forward as a clan.
THE ROOT
פֶּרֶץ
Perets
GROWS FROM
פרץ
To break through or burst out; a breach.
“Pharez” in this verse is Perets. The name preserves the breaking-through as part of the person’s nature. In this verse, that name has become a family line: what was once a breach is now counted through its descendants.
ALSO GROWS
parats: Break through, burst out.
פָּרַץ
This verb appears in Perez’s naming story, where the child breaks through first.
perets: Breach, break-through.
פֶּרֶץ
This noun is the name itself, carried here by a clan descended from Perez.
זֶרַח
Zeraḥ
GROWS FROM
זרח
To rise or shine forth.
Zerah’s name carries the image of rising or shining forth. Beside Perez’s name of breaking through, it shows how the clan list preserves distinct name-natures within Judah.
ALSO GROWS
zarach: Rise, shine forth.
זָרַח
The verb gives the name Zerah its image of something coming into view.
mizrach: East, the place of sunrise.
מִזְרָח
This related word carries the same rising image into a direction, extending the name’s sense of emergence.
THE PATTERN
What breaks through can be named and carried forward as a people.
And it came to pass, as he drew back his hand, that, behold, his brother came out: and she said, How hast thou broken forth? this breach be upon thee: therefore his name was called Pharez.And David came to Baal-perazim, and David smote them there, and said, The LORD hath broken forth upon mine enemies before me, as the breach of waters. Therefore he called the name of that place Baal-perazim.The breaker is come up before them: they have broken up, and have passed through the gate, and are gone out by it: and their king shall pass before them, and the LORD on the head of them.THE THREAD
And it came to pass, as he drew back his hand, that, behold, his brother came out: and she said, How hast thou broken forth? this breach be upon thee: therefore his name was called Pharez.Genesis ties Pharez’s name to the words “broken forth” and “breach.” Numbers shows that this name now marks a whole clan, carrying that moment of emergence through the generations.
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