What Does Numbers 32:34 Mean in the King James?
And the children of Gad built Dibon, and Ataroth, and Aroer,
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 same Hebrew root can describe building towns and being built up as a family, joining a place’s formation to a people’s.
THE MEANING
Your presence takes tangible shape through what is built and named. Here, that work appears in three particular places, Dibon, Ataroth, and Aroer, and Ataroth carries the image of crowns.
THE ROOT
וַיִּבְנוּ
vayyivnu
GROWS FROM
בנה
To build, build up, or establish.
In this verse, the verb names the building of towns; elsewhere, the same root describes being built up as a family. The root holds settlement and the forming of a people in one word.
ALSO GROWS
bonim: Builders.
בֹּנִים
The same root names the people who build, making the action in this verse part of a wider language of builders and their work.
ve'ibaneh: And I may be built up.
וְאִבָּנֶה
In Genesis 16:2, Sarai uses this form when speaking of being built up through a child; the root links a settlement taking shape with a family being formed.
עֲטָרוֹת
Atarot
GROWS FROM
עטר
To encircle or crown.
Ataroth is the plural form of “crowns.” One of the places named in the verse carries an image of crowning within its name.
ALSO GROWS
atarah: Crown or circlet.
עֲטָרָה
This singular form gives Ataroth its crown imagery.
atar: To crown or encircle.
עָטַר
The verb behind the name evokes something encircling or crowned, adding a distinct image to this built place.
THE PATTERN
A community gives its shared life visible shape through what it builds.
And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.A Song of degrees for Solomon. Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.But Solomon built him an house.THE THREAD
And Sarai said unto Abram, Behold now, the LORD hath restrained me from bearing: I pray thee, go in unto my maid; it may be that I may obtain children by her. And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai.Numbers uses the root בנה (banah, “build”) for constructing towns; Sarai uses the same root when she speaks of being built up through a child. One root holds settlement and the forming of a family together.
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