What Does Numbers 14:10 Mean?
But all the assembly said to stone them with stones. And the weight of the LORD was seen in the tent of meeting before all the children of Israel.
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
But all the congregation bade stone them with stones. And the glory of the LORD appeared in the tabernacle of the congregation before all the children of Israel.THE KEY
As the whole congregation turns toward stoning, the LORD’s weight becomes visible before that same whole congregation.
THE MEANING
You see a whole congregation ready to stone the people before them, and the LORD’s weight appearing in the meeting tent before them all. The verse holds the violence in full view while making the divine presence equally public; no one in the scene is outside that sight.
THE ROOT
כָּבוֹד
kavod
GROWS FROM
כבד
k-b-d
To be heavy or weighty; by extension, to be honored.
English “glory” can sound like acclaim or radiance, while כָּבוֹד (kavod, weight or glory) carries the sense of substance and consequence. Here that weight is made visible before the very assembly whose threat of violence fills the scene.
ALSO GROWS
kaved: Heavy, weighty
כָּבֵד
This branch makes the concrete sense of “glory” audible: the LORD’s presence carries weight before the congregation.
kibbed: To honor, treat as weighty
כִּבֵּד
Honor is what happens when someone is recognized as having weight; the visible appearance places the LORD’s weight before the whole assembly.
THE PATTERN
The LORD’s presence becomes publicly visible among gathered people, not confined to a private witness.
And it came to pass, as Aaron spoke to the whole assembly of the children of Israel, that they turned their faces toward the wilderness, and look, the weight of the LORD was seen in the cloud.And Korah gathered all the congregation against them to the opening of the tent of meeting, and the weight of the LORD was seen by all the congregation.And the word became flesh and pitched a tent among us, and we beheld his weight, the weight as of the only-born from the Father, full of favor and truth.THE THREAD
And it came to pass, as Aaron spoke to the whole assembly of the children of Israel, that they turned their faces toward the wilderness, and look, the weight of the LORD was seen in the cloud.The same Hebrew word, כָּבוֹד (kavod, weight or glory), appears in both verses. In each, that weight becomes visible before the congregation, turning “glory” from an abstract idea into a presence the gathered people see.
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