What Does Numbers 4:18 Mean in the King James?
Cut ye not off the tribe of the families of the Kohathites from among the Levites:
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 Hebrew root for cutting a people off also describes cutting a covenant: the same image can sever belonging or bind it.
THE MEANING
A whole family-group can be severed from the people among whom it belongs. The warning speaks to anyone entrusted with a dangerous threshold: how that boundary is handled can determine whether others remain safely within the community.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that cutting off a few is a small or necessary price for protecting the whole; here, that severance is itself what must be prevented.
THE ROOT
אַל־תַּכְרִיתוּ
ʾal-takhrîtû
GROWS FROM
כרת
K-R-T
to cut or sever; in a causative form, to cut off
“cut off” in this verse is ʾal-takhrîtû. The root כרת holds both separation and binding: it appears in the command not to cut this family-group away, and in the Hebrew expression כָּרַת בְּרִית, “cut a covenant.” Here, the warning protects the Kohathites’ place within the Levites.
ALSO GROWS
karat berit: Make a covenant; literally, cut a binding agreement.
כָּרַת בְּרִית
The same root that can describe severing people can also describe forming a bond, bringing the verse’s concern with belonging into focus.
nikhrat: Be severed or removed from a people.
נִכְרַת
This form makes the consequence of the command concrete: a person or group can be separated from the community to which they belong.
THE PATTERN
Approaching what is holy requires guarded boundaries because careless approach can cost human life.
And thou shalt set bounds unto the people round about, saying, Take heed to yourselves, that ye go not up into the mount, or touch the border of it: whosoever toucheth the mount shall be surely put to death:And the LORD said unto Moses, Speak unto Aaron thy brother, that he come not at all times into the holy place within the vail before the mercy seat, which is upon the ark; that he die not: for I will appear in the cloud upon the mercy seat.For our God is a consuming fire.THE THREAD
In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates:The Hebrew verb translated “cut off” shares its root with כָּרַת בְּרִית (karat berit), “cut a covenant.” The same image can mark either a bond or a severance; here, the command protects the Kohathite families from being cut away from their place among the Levites.
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