What Does Numbers 30:1 Mean in the King James?
And Moses spake unto the heads of the tribes concerning the children of Israel, saying, This is the thing which the LORD hath commanded.
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 word translated “thing” is דָּבָר (dābār), which also means “word”: what the LORD commands is already taking shape as the matter Moses speaks.
THE MEANING
The command reaches the community as a spoken matter, carried by those entrusted to lead it. The verse keeps source and messenger distinct: a human voice can carry a word without owning its origin.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A leader’s authority means the word begins with the leader. Moses speaks, yet names the LORD as its source.
THE ROOT
הַדָּבָר
ha-dābār
GROWS FROM
דבר
d-b-r
Speak or utter; דָּבָר also means word, matter, or thing.
The same Hebrew noun holds together what English separates as a spoken word and a thing or matter. The command is not an abstract message: it is the matter Moses speaks into the community.
ALSO GROWS
dābār: Word, matter, affair, or thing.
דָּבָר
This is the word rendered “thing” in the verse, while also carrying the sense of a word spoken.
dibber: He spoke; to speak.
דִּבֵּר
The verb shares the root with דָּבָר, linking the spoken word to the matter being named.
הַמַּטּוֹת
hammaṭṭōt
GROWS FROM
נטה
n-ṭ-h
Stretch out, extend, or incline.
The Hebrew word for “tribes,” מַטֶּה (maṭṭeh), also means “staff” or “branch.” The heads speak to a community pictured in the language of branches extending from a shared line.
ALSO GROWS
maṭṭeh: Staff, rod, or branch.
מַטֶּה
This sense brings the verse’s tribal structure into view as branches extending from a common source.
maṭṭeh: Tribe or tribal division.
מַטֶּה
The word used for the tribes also carries the image of a staff or branch, holding community and branching together.
מֹשֶׁה
Mōsheh
GROWS FROM
משׁה
m-sh-h
Draw out, especially from water.
Moses’ name is linked in its biblical explanation to being drawn out of water. Here, the one named as drawn out carries the LORD’s word outward to the heads of the tribes.
ALSO GROWS
māshāh: To draw out.
מָשָׁה
This verb is the root associated with Moses’ name.
meshîtîhu: I drew him out.
מְשִׁיתִהוּ
This form appears in the naming explanation for Moses and echoes the root’s meaning.
THE PATTERN
A word entrusted to a human voice is received before it is spoken onward.
Then the LORD put forth his hand, and touched my mouth. And the LORD said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth.For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread:And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.THE THREAD
I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him.Numbers calls the command a דָּבָר (dābār, word or matter); Deuteronomy speaks of the LORD’s דְּבָרִים (devarim, words) placed in a prophet’s mouth. The shared root shows the matter Moses announces is already the LORD’s speech before a human voice carries it.
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