What Does Numbers 32:32 Mean in the King James?
We will pass over armed before the LORD into the land of Canaan, that the possession of our inheritance on this side Jordan may be ours.
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 verse binds inheritance to an armed passage: what is received as a share is also a material holding reached through collective struggle.
THE MEANING
You hear a collective vow in the present tense: we go armed before the LORD into Canaan, and the possession of our inheritance on this side of the Jordan is ours. The claim is territorial and costly: inheritance is named as a holding, and the passage is made under arms.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that receiving an inheritance frees its holders from the cost of the passage that secures it.
THE ROOT
נַחְלֹץ
naḥlōṣ
GROWS FROM
חלץ
ḥ-l-ṣ
To equip or arm oneself; in other forms, to draw out, remove, or deliver.
The Hebrew form rendered “armed” belongs to a root that also carries the sense of drawing out or delivering. The verse presents readiness as an act of mobilization, not merely a status.
ALSO GROWS
ḥālūṣ: A person equipped for battle.
חָלוּץ
This branch names the people as equipped for the passage they vow to make.
ḥālaṣ: To draw something off or remove it; in other forms, to rescue or deliver.
חָלַץ
This wider word-family gives the armed form a sense of people drawn out and made ready.
אֲחֻזַּת
ʾaḥuzzat
GROWS FROM
אחז
ʾ-ḥ-z
To grasp, seize, or hold.
The Hebrew noun for possession carries the image of holding. Paired with inheritance, it makes the promised share concrete: something received and held as land.
ALSO GROWS
ʾāḥaz: To grasp, seize, or hold fast.
אָחַז
The verb gives the noun “possession” its underlying image of holding.
ʾaḥuzzāh: A holding, possession, or estate.
אֲחֻזָּה
This noun is the same word-family as the verse’s “possession,” making the claim to land tangible.
נַחֲלָתֵנוּ
naḥălātenu
GROWS FROM
נחל
n-ḥ-l
To inherit or receive as an allotted portion.
The word describes a share received, not something self-created. Here that inheritance is also named as a holding, joining what is allotted to what is possessed.
ALSO GROWS
nāḥal: To inherit or receive an allotted share.
נָחַל
The verb shows inheritance as receiving a portion.
naḥălāh: An inheritance, heritage, or allotted share.
נַחֲלָה
This noun is the inheritance named as theirs in the verse.
THE PATTERN
An inheritance becomes lived reality through forward movement toward what is given.
And I commanded you at that time, saying, The LORD your God hath given you this land to possess it: ye shall pass over armed before your brethren the children of Israel, all that are meet for the war.Your wives, your little ones, and your cattle, shall remain in the land which Moses gave you on this side Jordan; but ye shall pass before your brethren armed, all the mighty men of valour, and help them;By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.THE THREAD
And the land be subdued before the LORD: then afterward ye shall return, and be guiltless before the LORD, and before Israel; and this land shall be your possession before the LORD.The same word for possession appears here as אֲחֻזָּה (ʾaḥuzzāh, “holding” or “possession”), from אחז (ʾ-ḥ-z, “grasp” or “hold”). This verse adds what surrounds that holding: the land is subdued before the LORD, then the people return guiltless.
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