What Does Numbers 31:23 Mean in the King James?
Every thing that may abide the fire, ye shall make it go through the fire, and it shall be clean: nevertheless it shall be purified with the water of separation: and all that abideth not the fire ye shall make go through the water.
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 “purified” comes from the same root as “missing”: here, cleansing is a passage that clears what has gone wrong.
THE MEANING
Cleansing here is a passage matched to what the material can bear: what withstands fire passes through it, and what cannot withstand fire passes through water. Even what passes through fire still meets the water of separation; both routes lead to cleanness.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that purity belongs only to what can survive fire: what cannot withstand fire still has a cleansing route through water, and fire-bearing material still passes through water of separation.
THE ROOT
יִתְחַטָּא
yitḥatta
GROWS FROM
חטא
The root means to miss or go wrong; in purification forms, it means to cleanse or clear from defilement. This form means “be purified” or “cleanse oneself.”
The verb behind “purified” is yitḥatta, from the same root as חֵטְא (ḥeṭʾ, chet), “missing” or “offense.” The word-family joins the missing and its cleansing: purification clears defilement rather than adding a new quality.
ALSO GROWS
ḥeṭʾ: Missing, offense
חֵטְא
This is the root’s familiar sense: what needs cleansing is named as a missing or offense.
ḥaṭṭāʾt: Sin or defilement; also a purification offering
חַטָּאת
The same root names both the defilement and a means of clearing it.
ḥiṭṭēʾ: Purify, cleanse from impurity
חִטֵּא
This purification verb makes the cleansing sense of the root explicit.
תַּעֲבִירוּ
taʿaviru
GROWS FROM
עבר
To pass or cross over; in this form, to make something pass through.
“go through” in this verse is taʿaviru. The same verb introduces both routes: through fire for what can endure it, through water for what cannot. The root makes cleansing a crossing, while the material’s capacity determines the medium.
ALSO GROWS
ʿever: The other side, beyond
עֵבֶר
Crossing through an element carries the material toward what lies beyond it.
maʿavar: Passage, crossing
מַעֲבָר
The verse presents purification as a passage through fire or water, not as bypassing either.
THE PATTERN
Scripture pictures purification as passage through what tests or washes, with the passage bringing refinement rather than bypassing exposure.
And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The LORD is my God.That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:Thou hast caused men to ride over our heads; we went through fire and through water: but thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place.THE THREAD
Thou hast caused men to ride over our heads; we went through fire and through water: but thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place.Numbers uses תַּעֲבִירוּ (taʿaviru, “make it pass through”), while the psalm uses עָבַר (ʿāvar, “pass through”), from the same root עבר (ʿ-b-r, “cross”). The psalm carries the fire-and-water crossing into a place of abundance, opening the purification passage toward what lies beyond it.
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