What Does Numbers 33:2 Mean in the King James?
And Moses wrote their goings out according to their journeys by the commandment of the LORD: and these are their journeys according to their goings out.
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 counts each departure as part of the journey, recording the path from the leaving onward.
THE MEANING
Your path is not only its destination: each departure belongs to the journey as it unfolds. The leaving and the traveling are held together in an ordered account under the LORD’s command.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that only arrival matters and that the departures and the way between can be discarded.
THE ROOT
מַסְעֵיהֶם
masʿêhem
GROWS FROM
נסע
To pull up and set out; to journey onward.
The Hebrew word for journeys grows from a verb of setting out, so the route is made of departures, not only destinations. The paired wording also holds each departure beside the movement that follows it.
ALSO GROWS
massaʿ: A journey or stage of travel.
מַסָּע
It names a stretch of movement as one part of the recorded route.
nesiʿah: Departure or travel.
נְסִיעָה
It preserves the root’s sense of setting out within the idea of a journey.
מוֹצָאֵיהֶם
motsaʾeihem
GROWS FROM
יצא
To go out or come forth.
The verse pairs the goings out with the journeys, then turns the pairing around: journeys according to goings out, and goings out according to journeys. The repetition makes leaving part of the route’s shape, rather than a disposable moment before it begins.
ALSO GROWS
motsaʾ: An exit, point of departure, or issue.
מוֹצָא
It gives the departure itself a place in the account.
hotsi: To bring or lead out.
הוֹצִיא
It echoes the movement outward that marks each beginning of the route.
מֹשֶׁה
Mosheh
GROWS FROM
משה
To draw out, including drawing out of water.
“Moses” in this verse is Mosheh. In the biblical name-story, Moshe is linked to mashah, to draw out of water. Here the one whose name carries that image writes down a people’s successive goings out, making his name an echo of the movement he records.
ALSO GROWS
mashah: To draw out.
מָשָׁה
This is the verbal root linked to the name Mosheh.
meshitihu: I drew him out.
מְשִׁיתִהוּ
This form appears in the name-story in Exodus 2:10 and makes the name’s drawing-out image explicit.
THE PATTERN
A path becomes legible when its departures and the movement that follows are held together in sequence.
And Abram journeyed, going on still toward the south.The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.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 Abram journeyed, going on still toward the south.The verb translated journeyed comes from נסע (nasaʿ, to set out), the same root behind Numbers 33’s journeys. Genesis shows the movement underway; Numbers gathers such movement into a remembered sequence of departures.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us