What Does Numbers 13:2 Mean?
Send men, that they may scout out the land of Canaan, which I give to the children of Israel. From every tribe of their fathers you shall send a man, each one a lifted one among them.
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
Send thou men, that they may search the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel: of every tribe of their fathers shall ye send a man, every one a ruler among them.THE KEY
The scouts are sent to uncover a gift already being given, so sight follows generosity instead of earning it.
THE MEANING
God’s giving is already in motion before the reader sees the land. The sent ones search what has been given; they do not make the gift real by finding it. Every tribe is represented in that act of seeing.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that a gift must be proved by sight before it can be trusted.
THE ROOT
שְׁלַח
shelach
GROWS FROM
שלח
shalach
Send forth, release, let go.
“send” in this verse is shelach. The sending is an act of release: the men are let go to look into what is already being given. This root gathers sending and release into one movement, so the scouts’ departure begins the opening of the land to view.
ALSO GROWS
shilluach: Sending away; dismissal.
שִׁלּוּחַ
This branch makes the release within “send” audible: the men are sent out from where they are to go and see.
shaliach: Messenger or delegate sent to act on another’s behalf.
שִׁלִיחַ
Each man goes as a representative of his tribe, carrying its presence into the search.
Shiloach: “Sent,” the name of the waters called Siloam in John 9:7.
שִׁלֹחַ
The name of the pool where sight is restored carries the same root of sending; here, too, what is sent opens the way to see.
נֹתֵן
noten
GROWS FROM
נתן
natan
Give, set, place.
The words “which I give” place the gift before the search. In this root, giving also carries the sense of setting or placing: the land is already being placed before the people to receive.
ALSO GROWS
mattanah: Gift.
מַתָּנָה
The gift is named before the scouts see what it contains.
natun: Given, placed, assigned.
נָתוּן
This form holds together the two parts of the verse: the land is given, then the representatives are assigned to search it.
וְיָתֻרוּ
veyaturu
GROWS FROM
תור
tur
Explore, search out, go about seeking.
“scout out” in this verse is veyaturu. This is an active search, a going about to see what is there. The same root can describe seeking after the heart and eyes, so the word holds both the act of looking and the direction that guides the look.
ALSO GROWS
latur: To explore or search out.
לָתוּר
This infinitive form names the scouts’ task: to go through the land and see it.
taturu: You seek after or follow.
תָּתוּרוּ
In Numbers 15:39, the same root describes seeking after one’s own heart and eyes, revealing how exploration can become pursuit.
THE PATTERN
Those sent ahead make visible the provision that is already coming or being given.
And now, do not be pained, and do not let it burn in your eyes that you sold me here, for God sent me before you to keep alive.After these things the Lord showed forth seventy others also, and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, where he himself was about to come.THE THREAD
And it shall be to you for a tassel, that you may see it, and remember all the commands of the LORD, and do them, and that you not scout after your own heart and your own eyes, after which you go whoring.The word translated “search” here shares the root תור (tur), “to explore or seek,” with the command “that ye seek not after your own heart and your own eyes.” The root shows that seeking is more than looking: it can name the direction a person follows.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us