What Does Numbers 14:40 Mean?
And they rose early in the morning and climbed to the head of the mountain, saying, Here we are, and we will go up to the place which the LORD had said, for we have missed the mark.
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 they rose up early in the morning, and gat them up into the top of the mountain, saying, Lo, we be here, and will go up unto the place which the LORD hath promised: for we have sinned.THE KEY
The same Hebrew verb holds the LORD’s saying and their own saying together, while their next move shows the gap between recalling the word and moving with it.
THE MEANING
“We have sinned” sits beside “we will go up”: naming the miss does not by itself change the direction. The repeated upward language shows recognition alongside the old movement. The reader can recognize what went wrong and still repeat the course that led there.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that admitting what went wrong is the same as turning from it.
THE ROOT
לֵאמֹר
le’mor
GROWS FROM
אמר
ʾ-m-r
To say, speak, or utter.
“had said” in this verse is le’mor. The same Hebrew verb appears in “saying” and in what the LORD “hath promised.” That echo puts their declaration beside the LORD’s word, while “we will go up” reveals that recalling a word and moving with it are not the same thing.
ALSO GROWS
omer: Utterance, saying.
אֹמֶר
This noun branch keeps the focus on spoken words, which the verse places beside a declared action.
imrah: Utterance, saying, or word.
אִמְרָה
Another form from this root echoes the verse’s paired sayings: what is spoken can be compared with the movement that follows.
חָטָאנוּ
chata’nu
GROWS FROM
חטא
ḥ-ṭ-ʾ
To miss, go wrong, or incur guilt.
“missed the mark” in this verse is chata’nu. The root gives “we have sinned” the concrete sense of naming a miss. The words name what went wrong, but the next phrase still declares the same upward course.
ALSO GROWS
chet: A missing, an offense.
חֵטְא
This noun carries the same sense of a miss that the speakers acknowledge.
chatta’t: A missing or sin; also an offering for the missing.
חַטָּאת
The root can name both the missing and a response to it; here, naming the missing has not yet changed the action.
נַעֲלֶה
na’aleh
GROWS FROM
עלה
ʿ-l-h
To go up, rise, or ascend.
“climbed to the head” in this verse is na’aleh. The verse repeats this upward movement: they go up the mountain and say they will go up to the promised place. The repeated ascent sits beside their confession, making the unchanged direction audible in the sentence.
ALSO GROWS
aliyah: Ascent, going up.
עֲלִיָּה
This branch preserves the literal upward movement repeated in the verse.
olah: Something that rises; a burnt offering.
עֹלָה
This branch also carries the sense of rising, underscoring the verse’s repeated language of going up.
THE PATTERN
A spoken acknowledgment becomes a turn only when the next action changes.
Whoever covers his rebellions shall not prosper, but whoever speaks them into the open and lets them go shall be shown compassion.And he came to the second and said likewise. He answered and said, I go, master, and did not go.So also trust, if it has no works, is dead, by itself.THE THREAD
And Moses said, Why now do you cross over the mouth of the LORD? But it shall not break through.The same root, אמר (amar, “to say or utter”), marks the declarations in verse 40 and Moses’s reply here. This verse names the conflict between their words and their chosen movement.
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