What Does Numbers 31:31 Mean in the King James?
And Moses and Eleazar the priest did as the LORD commanded Moses.
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 command crosses from one person to two, turning received direction into shared work.
THE MEANING
In your present, instruction takes shape when a word received by one is enacted in shared work. The direction remains connected to its source even as another person joins in carrying it out. Moses (מֹשֶׁה, Moshe, “drawn out”) and Eleazar (אֶלְעָזָר, Elʿazar, “God has helped”) hold that movement in their names as well as their action.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that receiving a command is the same as completing it: the verse locates completion in the action that follows.
THE ROOT
צִוָּה
tzivvah
GROWS FROM
צוה
tsavah
to command, charge, or appoint
“commanded” in this verse is tzivvah. The root carries the sense of direction placed in someone’s keeping. Here, what is entrusted to Moses becomes work carried out with Eleazar.
ALSO GROWS
mitzvah: commandment, a command or charge
מִצְוָה
It shows a command as a charge that can be held and carried forward.
tzav: command; an imperative charge
צַו
This form keeps the root’s direct movement from instruction toward action.
וַיַּעַשׂ
vayyaʿas
GROWS FROM
עשה
ʿasah
to do or make
“did” in this verse is vayyaʿas. This root joins doing with making: מַעֲשֶׂה (maʿaseh) can mean a deed or work. The command has an observable form in what Moses and Eleazar carry out.
ALSO GROWS
maʿaseh: deed, work, or action
מַעֲשֶׂה
It shows how the root’s idea of doing takes shape as a concrete work.
ʿoseh: one who does or makes
עֹשֶׂה
The same root can name the one carrying an action into effect.
מֹשֶׁה
Moshe
GROWS FROM
משׁה
mashah
to draw out
Exodus 2:10 connects מֹשֶׁה (Moshe, Moses) with מָשָׁה (mashah, to draw out), giving the name the nature of one drawn out. Here, that name belongs to the person entrusted with carrying the command into action.
ALSO GROWS
meshithihu: I drew him out
מְשִׁיתִהוּ
Exodus 2:10 uses this form in the explanation of Moses’ name, linking him with being drawn out of water.
Moshe: Moses; the name is linked in Exodus 2:10 with being drawn out
מֹשֶׁה
The name brings the image of being drawn out into the verse’s portrait of the one entrusted with the command.
THE PATTERN
A command becomes visible when those who receive it enact it in the world.
Thus did Moses: according to all that the LORD commanded him, so did he.As the LORD commanded Moses his servant, so did Moses command Joshua, and so did Joshua; he left nothing undone of all that the LORD commanded Moses.But that the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go hence.THE THREAD
As the LORD commanded Moses his servant, so did Moses command Joshua, and so did Joshua; he left nothing undone of all that the LORD commanded Moses.Joshua 11:15 repeats the roots צוה (tsavah, “command”) and עשה (ʿasah, “do or make”), then shows the charge passing from Moses to Joshua. It opens this verse further by showing instruction carried into action through another handoff.
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