What Does Numbers 35:8 Mean in the King James?
And the cities which ye shall give shall be of the possession of the children of Israel: from them that have many ye shall give many; but from them that have few ye shall give few: every one shall give of his cities unto the Levites according to his inheritance which he inheriteth.
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 Levites’ cities come from every tribe’s inheritance, so each private allotment already contains a share for the common life.
THE MEANING
A community’s shared life does not require identical contributions: the measure changes with what each holds. Yet every inheritance remains connected to provision for the people who serve that community, so possession already carries relationship.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that fairness means everyone contributes the same amount: the measure differs with each inheritance, while no inheritance sits wholly outside shared provision.
THE ROOT
נַחֲלָתוֹ
nachalato
GROWS FROM
נחל
nachal
To inherit or receive an allotted possession.
English makes inheritance sound like a fixed possession, while נחל also names the act of inheriting and, in a causative form, causing someone to inherit. The cities pass from each tribe’s share to the Levites, so inheritance appears as a relationship of receiving and allotting.
ALSO GROWS
nachal: To inherit or take possession.
נָחַל
This verb makes inheritance an action, matching the verse’s repeated link between what each tribe receives and what it gives.
hinchil: To cause someone to inherit; to allot as an inheritance.
הִנְחִיל
This causative branch shows the other side of inheritance: one party’s allotment can become another’s received portion.
תִּתְּנוּ
tittenu
GROWS FROM
נתן
natan
To give, put, or set in place.
“give” in this verse is tittenu. The verse uses the root נתן for giving cities from the tribes’ holdings. Since the same root can mean putting or setting something in place, the giving also carries the sense of assigning each portion where it belongs.
ALSO GROWS
natan: To give, put, or set.
נָתַן
The verb names the act by which a tribe’s cities are placed into the Levites’ share.
mattanah: A gift or present.
מַתָּנָה
This noun from the same root shows a given thing as a portion transferred from one holder to another.
THE PATTERN
A shared community makes room for differing portions by letting abundance supply what another lacks.
And when they did mete it with an omer, he that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack; they gathered every man according to his eating.But by an equality, that now at this time your abundance may be a supply for their want, that their abundance also may be a supply for your want: that there may be equality:Neither was there any among them that lacked: for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold,THE THREAD
And the LORD spake unto Aaron, Thou shalt have no inheritance in their land, neither shalt thou have any part among them: I am thy part and thine inheritance among the children of Israel.The same inheritance-root names the Levites’ lack of a tribal landholding and the portion they receive through Israel. Numbers 35:8 gives them cities from the tribes’ inheritances; Numbers 18:20 names the LORD as their deeper portion.
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