What Does Numbers 32:5 Mean in the King James?
Wherefore, said they, if we have found grace in thy sight, let this land be given unto thy servants for a possession, and bring us not over Jordan.
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 request frames possession as land given to be held and gives the refusal to cross the Jordan equal weight with the land requested.
THE MEANING
Favor can take concrete form as a place to hold, and the request names a boundary along with what is received. Here, the land is for the servants, without crossing the Jordan.
THE ROOT
אֲחֻזָּה
achuzzah
GROWS FROM
אחז
to grasp, seize, or hold
The word for possession grows from a root of grasping and holding. The land is named as what the servants will hold, while the final clause marks the Jordan as the edge they do not pass.
ALSO GROWS
achaz: to grasp, seize, or hold
אָחַז
This verb makes the physical sense inside “possession” audible: something held.
achuzzah: possession, holding
אֲחֻזָּה
This is the noun used for the land they ask to receive and hold.
יֻתַּן
yuttan from nathan
GROWS FROM
נתן
to give, set, or place
The verb is passive: let the land be given. Its root carries the action of giving or placing, so the request presents possession as something received and then held.
ALSO GROWS
nathan: to give, set, or place
נָתַן
The root names the act by which the land comes to the servants.
mattanah: gift
מַתָּנָה
This noun from the same root echoes the land as something given.
THE PATTERN
An inheritance becomes tangible as an assigned portion of land to possess.
And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage.Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.THE THREAD
And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.The same roots for “give” (נתן, nathan) and “hold” (אחז, achaz) shape both verses: the land is given as a possession. Numbers narrows that shared inheritance to a request with a boundary: the land is held without crossing the Jordan.
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