What Does Numbers 13:28 Mean?
Yet the people who dwell in the land are mighty, and the cities are walled, and very great; and we saw the children of Anak there also.
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
Nevertheless the people be strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are walled, and very great: and moreover we saw the children of Anak there.THE KEY
Hebrew’s word for “walled” also carries the sense of being cut off and made inaccessible: the report describes a boundary built to shut off approach.
THE MEANING
You see the situation in its full scale: strong people inhabit the land, the cities are vast and fortified, and Anak’s descendants are there. The verse records how formidable it looks while leaving open what that sight ultimately means.
THE ROOT
בְּצֻרוֹת
bəṣurōt
GROWS FROM
בצר
b-ṣ-r
To cut off, make inaccessible, or fortify.
English “walled” can sound like architecture alone; this Hebrew word also carries the sense of access being cut off. The report names a boundary that shuts off approach, alongside the people’s strength and the cities’ size.
ALSO GROWS
bāṣar: To fortify or make inaccessible.
בָּצַר
This verb shares the seed of the adjective describing the cities.
mivṣār: Fortress or stronghold.
מִבְצָר
The same root names the defended place, giving the cities’ barrier a concrete form.
עֲנָק
ʿAnaq Anak
GROWS FROM
ענק
ʿ-n-q
Associated with a neck ornament or necklace; the proper name’s derivation is uncertain.
Anak’s name echoes the Hebrew noun for a neck ornament, though the name’s origin cannot be established from this verse. The phrase “children of Anak” gives the formidable people a named lineage, more specific than an unnamed mass.
ALSO GROWS
ʿānāq: Neck ornament or necklace.
עָנָק
This noun shares the name’s consonants, though the connection to the proper name is uncertain.
ʿanāqîm: Anakim, the named giant people.
עֲנָקִים
The group name identifies them through their descent from Anak.
THE PATTERN
A visible barrier can be real and imposing without being the final measure of what happens.
For by you I run through a troop; and by my God I leap over a wall.By trust the walls of Jericho fell, having been circled around for seven days.THE THREAD
"Where shall we go up? Our brothers have melted our heart, saying, the people are greater and taller than we are; the cities are great and walled up to the heavens; and moreover we have seen the sons of the Anakim there."Deuteronomy repeats the same Hebrew root for “walled” and the name Anak, then adds that the report has discouraged the heart. The thread shows how the description of a boundary can become a sense that the boundary has already decided the outcome.
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