What Does Numbers 33:14 Mean in the King James?
And they removed from Alush, and encamped at Rephidim, where was no water for the people to drink.
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
A place whose name evokes support can still leave its people thirsty, so arrival is not the same as being sustained.
THE MEANING
The verse leaves the reader at a stop where the simplest need is still unmet: there is no water to drink. Reaching a camp, even one whose name is linked with support, does not itself mean thirst is answered.
THE ROOT
רְפִידִים
rəphîdîm
GROWS FROM
רפד
To spread out or furnish with a bed or support.
Rephidim is traditionally connected with רפד (r-p-d), a root carrying the sense of a laid-out support or resting place. That undertone sits beside the verse’s plain statement that the people still have no water: a place can suggest support without supplying every need.
ALSO GROWS
rippadtî: I spread or made my bed.
רִפַּדְתִּי
In Job 17:13, this form names a laid-out resting place, echoing the support associated with Rephidim.
rəphīdātō: Its support or base; rendered “the bottom thereof” in the KJV.
רְפִידָתוֹ
This related form preserves the root’s image of a supporting surface, sharpening the contrast between Rephidim’s name and the thirst named here.
THE PATTERN
Scripture names thirst plainly, then traces where drinkable water comes from.
Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.And they thirsted not when he led them through the deserts: he caused the waters to flow out of the rock for them: he clave the rock also, and the waters gushed out.In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.THE THREAD
If I wait, the grave is mine house: I have made my bed in the darkness.The phrase “I have made my bed” uses רפד (r-p-d), the root traditionally associated with Rephidim’s name. That echo places the encampment beside the image of a laid-out resting support, while the verse keeps the lack of water explicit.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
You can read any verse this way in the app, keep it as a card, and send it on.
A Bible app where you send verses from your keyboard and in Messages, and every verse has a Deep Dive.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us