What Does Numbers 34:20 Mean in the King James?
And of the tribe of the children of Simeon, Shemuel the son of Ammihud.
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
Even in a list of tribes, Simeon’s name keeps the language of hearing attached to a people with a named place among the whole.
THE MEANING
This line makes belonging specific: Simeon has a place in the larger inheritance, and that place is carried by a named representative. The name Simeon carries the sound of hearing, so the people’s identity holds a trace of being heard.
THE ROOT
שִׁמְעוֹן
Shimʿon
GROWS FROM
שׁמע
sh-m-ʿ
To hear, listen, or attend.
Simeon’s name grows from the root for hearing, a connection made explicit when Leah names him because the LORD has heard her. English presents a tribal name; the Hebrew keeps hearing within the name carried into this list.
ALSO GROWS
shamaʿ: He heard; to hear or listen.
שָׁמַע
This verb supplies the root carried in Simeon’s name.
shemaʿ: Hear and respond.
שְׁמַע
It shows hearing as attention that meets what is heard, not sound merely passing by.
shemuʿah: A report or something heard.
שְׁמוּעָה
This branch makes hearing the way news or testimony enters a community.
THE PATTERN
A name can preserve the encounter of hearing or petition within a person’s place in a larger people.
And she conceived again, and bare a son; and said, Because the LORD hath heard that I was hated, he hath therefore given me this son also: and she called his name Simeon.Wherefore it came to pass, when the time was come about after Hannah had conceived, that she bare a son, and called his name Samuel, saying, Because I have asked him of the LORD.But the angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John.THE THREAD
And she conceived again, and bare a son; and said, Because the LORD hath heard that I was hated, he hath therefore given me this son also: and she called his name Simeon.Leah directly connects the name Simeon with the LORD hearing her, so the root is more than a sound echo. Numbers 34 places Simeon within the people’s inheritance, with that language of hearing still carried in the name.
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