What Does Numbers 28:1 Mean in the King James?
And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
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 behind “spake” is also the seed of “word” and “matter”: what is spoken is already taking shape in a hearer’s life.
THE MEANING
The LORD speaks, and the saying reaches a hearer as something specific rather than remaining abstract. Moses’s name carries the image of one drawn out, now receiving the word that is spoken.
THE ROOT
וַיְדַבֵּר
vayedabber
GROWS FROM
ד־ב־ר
d-b-r
To speak; the related noun means word, matter, or thing.
The verb translated “spake” and the noun translated “word” grow from the same root. Hebrew holds speech and matter together: the word is not merely sound, but something entering the hearer’s reality.
ALSO GROWS
dābār: Word, matter, or thing.
דָּבָר
The same root makes a spoken word and a matter one connected idea.
dibbēr: Spoke, declared, or addressed.
דִּבֵּר
This is the verb form in the verse: the word takes the shape of speech directed to a hearer.
מֹשֶׁה
Mosheh
GROWS FROM
מ־שׁ־ה
m-sh-h
To draw out, especially from water.
The verse names the hearer as Moses, whose name is linked in Exodus to being drawn out of the water. The one once drawn out now stands as the person receiving the spoken word.
ALSO GROWS
māshāh: To draw out or pull from water.
מָשָׁה
This is the verb behind the name’s biblical wordplay.
mĕshîtîhû: I drew him out.
מְשִׁיתִהוּ
This form appears in the naming explanation in Exodus 2:10, joining Moses’s name to the act of being drawn out.
THE PATTERN
The word becomes encounter when a voice reaches someone personally and is heard.
And when the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I.And the LORD came, and stood, and called as at other times, Samuel, Samuel. Then Samuel answered, Speak; for thy servant heareth.To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out.THE THREAD
After these things the word of the LORD came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.Genesis calls it dābār (דָּבָר), “word,” from the same ד־ב־ר root as “spake” here. The word and the speaking share one seed: what arrives as a word is also the LORD speaking into a hearer’s present reality.
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