What Does Numbers 5:6 Mean in the King James?
Speak unto the children of Israel, When a man or woman shall commit any sin that men commit, to do a trespass against the LORD, and that person be guilty;
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 names two layers in a single act: a human miss becomes a breach before the LORD, and the whole living person is accountable.
THE MEANING
A human wrong that becomes a breach against the LORD carries real accountability. The verse places that accountability on the whole living person who acts, rather than treating wrongdoing as a detached event.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a wrong can be only private or merely interpersonal: the verse names the act as a breach before the LORD and leaves the actor answerable for it.
THE ROOT
מְעֹל מַעַל
meʿol maʿal
GROWS FROM
מעל
maʿal
To act treacherously; to breach trust.
“trespass” in this verse is meʿol maʿal. The Hebrew repeats the same root in לִמְעֹל מַעַל (limʿol maʿal, to commit a breach), holding the act and the breach together. What begins as a human wrong is named as a rupture before the LORD.
ALSO GROWS
maʿal: To act unfaithfully or deal treacherously.
מָעַל
This verbal branch names the act of breaking trust.
maʿal: Breach or treachery.
מַעַל
This noun names the rupture itself, showing that the deed carries a relational consequence.
חַטָּאת
chattaʾt
GROWS FROM
חטא
chata
To miss; to miss the mark.
The root beneath “sin” keeps the sense of missing. The verse then names that missing as a breach: the language links the human failure to the relationship it ruptures.
ALSO GROWS
chata: To miss or commit a wrong.
חָטָא
The verb gives motion to the noun: a human action that misses.
chet: A missing or wrong.
חֵטְא
This related noun holds the same sense of missing that appears here before the verse names the breach.
THE PATTERN
A wrong between people also stands as an act held accountable before God.
There is none greater in this house than I; neither hath he kept back any thing from me but thee, because thou art his wife: how then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?He that oppresseth the poor reproacheth his Maker: but he that honoureth him hath mercy on the poor.But when ye sin so against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, ye sin against Christ.THE THREAD
But the children of Israel committed a trespass in the accursed thing: for Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took of the accursed thing: and the anger of the LORD was kindled against the children of Israel.Both verses use מעל (maʿal, to act treacherously or breach trust). Numbers names the liable person as a living soul; Joshua shows how one person’s taking can touch the whole people.
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