What Does Numbers 11:25 Mean?
And the LORD came down in a cloud, and spoke with him, and took from the breath that was upon him and set it upon the seventy elders. And when the breath settled upon them, they prophesied and did not stop.
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.
King James wording
King James Version
And the LORD came down in a cloud, and spake unto him, and took of the spirit that was upon him, and gave it unto the seventy elders: and it came to pass, that, when the spirit rested upon them, they prophesied, and did not cease.THE KEY
The same breath that rests on Moses is given to seventy, so prophetic speech is shared rather than owned.
THE MEANING
The breath rests on many at once, and prophecy comes through their voices. Divine presence is shared and settling, not confined to a single person.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
God’s breath can speak through only one leader, leaving everyone else to receive his words secondhand.
THE ROOT
הָרוּחַ
hā-rûaḥ
GROWS FROM
רוּחַ
Moving air: wind or breath, and the animating presence English calls spirit.
Ruach is one Hebrew word where English offers separate labels: wind, breath, and spirit. Here that same breath rests on many, reopening the connection English divides.
ALSO GROWS
rûaḥ: Air in motion; wind.
רוּחַ
This is the same Hebrew word translated as spirit in the verse, joining the breath that rests on the elders with moving air.
rûaḥ: Breath, the air moving through a living body.
רוּחַ
This sense makes the shared presence concrete: the breath rests on many and is expressed through their voices.
כְּנוֹחַ
kənōaḥ
GROWS FROM
נוּחַ
To settle, come to rest, or provide a resting place.
“settled” in this verse is kənōaḥ. The breath does not merely pass over the elders; the verb pictures it settling on them. Its resting has an audible result: prophetic speech.
ALSO GROWS
menûḥāh: Rest or a resting place.
מְנוּחָה
The noun makes the root’s sense of settling into a place visible in the breath resting upon the elders.
hēnîaḥ: To set down or cause to rest.
הֵנִיחַ
This related form links rest with placing: the breath settles onto the elders.
וַיִּתֵּן
wayyittēn
GROWS FROM
נתן
To give, set, or place.
“set it upon” in this verse is wayyittēn. The same verb holds giving and placing: the breath is given to the elders and set upon them. The wording presents it as something shared across the community, not held by one person alone.
ALSO GROWS
mattānāh: A gift.
מַתָּנָה
This related noun shows giving as something received, echoing the breath given to the elders.
nātûn: Given or placed.
נָתוּן
This related form brings out the sense of the breath being set upon the elders.
THE PATTERN
The divine breath is shared across many, and its one source appears through varied voices and gifts.
And it shall be afterward, that I will pour out my breath upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters will prophesy, your elders will dream dreams, your young men will see visions.But the one and the same breath works all these, portioning to each one as it wills.THE THREAD
And Moses said to him, "Are you burning for my sake? Would that all the LORD's people were prophets, and that the LORD would set his breath upon them!"The word spirit there is the same Hebrew ruach (רוּחַ, breath). Moses names the wider possibility in this scene: that the breath resting on the elders could rest on all the people, with prophecy shared across them.
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