What Does Numbers 1:23 Mean?

Those that were counted of them, even of the staff of Simeon, were fifty and nine thousand and three hundred.

Numbers 1:23 · SDV

Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.

Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.

This verse in the King James

King James wording

King James Version

Those that were numbered of them, even of the tribe of Simeon, were fifty and nine thousand and three hundred.

THE KEY

In Hebrew, being numbered here carries an echo of being attended to: the census brings Simeon into notice.

THE MEANING

This line makes Simeon visible within the whole by naming the tribe and giving its exact count. The Hebrew census word also belongs to a family that speaks of attending to, visiting, and overseeing; the number carries an echo of being brought into notice.

THE ROOT

פְּקֻדֵיהֶם

pequdehem

GROWS FROM

פקד

⁨פקד⁩ (paqad): attend to, visit, appoint, or muster.

“counted” in this verse is pequdehem. The census form ⁨פְּקֻדֵיהֶם⁩ (pequdehem), “their mustered ones,” comes from ⁨פקד⁩ (paqad), a verb used for attending to, visiting, appointing, and mustering. The count carries an echo of active notice: Simeon is entered into the people’s ordered register.

ALSO GROWS

paqad: Attend to, visit, appoint, or muster.

פָּקַד

The same verb describes the LORD visiting Sarah in Genesis 21:1, letting the census word carry an echo of directed attention.

pequddah: Oversight, charge, or appointment.

פְּקֻדָּה

This related noun extends the root into oversight and entrusted charge; the census likewise registers a tribe within an ordered whole.

שִׁמְעוֹן

Shim'on

GROWS FROM

שמע

⁨שמע⁩ (shama): hear, listen, or heed.

Simeon is a hearing-name, built from ⁨שמע⁩ (shama), “to hear.” The roll call preserves that name-nature: the tribe’s place in the count is carried by a name that remembers hearing.

ALSO GROWS

shama: Hear, listen, or heed.

שָׁמַע

Genesis 29:33 links Simeon’s name to the statement that the LORD heard; the name itself carries that hearing.

shemu'ah: Report, tidings, or something heard.

שְׁמוּעָה

This related word names what is heard and carried onward, extending the hearing-root echoed in Simeon’s name.

THE PATTERN

A count can be an act of attention, making a person or people visible within the whole.

And the LORD visited Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did for Sarah as he had spoken.

Genesis 21:1 · SDV“Visited” translates ⁨פקד⁩ (paqad), the same root-family as the census word, where attention becomes personal.

What is a frail one that you remember him, and the son of man that you visit him?

Psalm 8:4 · SDV“Visitest” uses ⁨פקד⁩ (paqad), showing the root’s language of attention directed toward a person.

But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So do not shrink, for you surpass many sparrows.

Luke 12:7 · SDVThe count reaches even the hairs of the head, making notice precise enough to include the smallest detail.

THE THREAD

And she conceived again, and bore a son, and she said, Because the LORD has heard that I was hated, he has therefore given me this son also. And she called his name Simeon, Heard.

Genesis 29:33 · SDV

Simeon (⁨שִׁמְעוֹן⁩, Shim’on) carries the root ⁨שמע⁩ (shama), “to hear,” and this verse connects the name with “the LORD hath heard.” The census preserves that hearing-name as it places the tribe within the count.

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