What Does Numbers 31:25 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 word behind “spake” can also mean “matter” or “thing,” so the speech opens something substantial, not sound alone.
THE MEANING
You stand at the threshold of a matter beginning to unfold through a spoken word. The verse brings you to the moment of address, where what follows first comes within reach through speech.
THE ROOT
וַיְדַבֵּר
vayedabber
GROWS FROM
דבר
d-b-r
To speak; its word-family also names a matter or thing.
“spake” in this verse is vayedabber. The Hebrew verb comes from the same root as דָּבָר (dābār), meaning “word,” “matter,” or “thing.” The verse holds speech and substance in one family: the words introduce the matter that follows.
ALSO GROWS
dābār: Word; matter; thing.
דָּבָר
This branch shows why the LORD’s speech here carries the substance of what is about to be said.
dibbur: Speech; utterance.
דִּבּוּר
This branch keeps attention on speech as an act that gives the coming matter a voice.
מֹשֶׁה
Moshe
GROWS FROM
משה
m-sh-h
To draw out; the name is linked to being drawn out of water.
Moses’ name carries the memory of being drawn out of water. Here, the one marked by that emergence is the one who receives the word, joining being drawn out with being addressed.
ALSO GROWS
māshāh: To draw out.
מָשָׁה
The name Moses is linked to this action, so the person addressed carries a name shaped by being drawn out.
meshîtihû: I drew him out of the water.
מְשִׁיתִהוּ
This form appears in the naming explanation in Exodus 2:10, tying Moses’ name to the act of being drawn out.
THE PATTERN
A spoken word carries the matter it opens, and what follows becomes active through it.
And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.THE THREAD
Then the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,Numbers uses וַיְדַבֵּר (vayedabber, “spoke”), from דבר (d-b-r); Jeremiah makes the same root visible as דָּבָר (dābār, “word”). The shared root lets speech appear as a matter arriving to the one addressed.
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