What Does Numbers 35:10 Mean in the King James?
Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye be come over Jordan into the land of Canaan;
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 land is entered through a verb of crossing, and the next command makes refuge part of what awaits on the far side.
THE MEANING
You stand at a threshold where crossing gives way to inhabiting a place. The verse holds the far side in view: this entry opens a shared life whose next instruction makes room for refuge. Arrival is a passage into conditions that shape how people live together.
THE ROOT
עֹבְרִים
ʿovrîm
GROWS FROM
עבר
To pass across, cross over, or move beyond.
The Hebrew pictures the people in the act of crossing, with a far side held in view. The same root appears in words for “beyond” and, by a traditional connection, “Hebrew” as one from across, links the English phrase “come over” leaves hidden.
ALSO GROWS
ʿēver: Beyond, across; the region on the other side.
עֵבֶר
The land is reached by crossing toward a far side, not by a vague arrival.
ʿivrî: Hebrew; traditionally connected with “one from across.”
עִבְרִי
The name echoes the identity of a people defined by crossing over.
THE PATTERN
A crossing carries people onto new ground where the next form of shared life begins.
And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Sichem, unto the plain of Moreh. And the Canaanite was then in the land.And the priests that bare the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood firm on dry ground in the midst of Jordan, and all the Israelites passed over on dry ground, until all the people were passed clean over Jordan.By faith they passed through the Red sea as by dry land: which the Egyptians assaying to do were drowned.THE THREAD
And the priests that bare the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood firm on dry ground in the midst of Jordan, and all the Israelites passed over on dry ground, until all the people were passed clean over Jordan.Joshua uses the same Hebrew root, עבר, for Israel’s crossing of Jordan. Numbers looks toward that threshold; Joshua shows the passage completed, with all the people on the far side.
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