What Does Numbers 20:17 Mean?
Let us pass through your land, I pray you. We will not pass through the field or the vineyard, nor will we drink the waters of the wells. We will go on the king's road, and we will not turn to the right hand or to the left, until we have passed through your border.
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
Let us pass, I pray thee, through thy country: we will not pass through the fields, or through the vineyards, neither will we drink of the water of the wells: we will go by the king’s high way, we will not turn to the right hand nor to the left, until we have passed thy borders.THE KEY
The repeated Hebrew root עָבַר (ʿāvar, cross over) makes passage and boundary one motion: crossing the land does not mean claiming what lies along the way.
THE MEANING
Passage through another’s ground can remain distinct from possession: the route is named, the fields and vineyards are left alone, and even the well water is not taken. The movement ends at the border, so the limit remains visible.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that permission to cross grants a right to everything along the way.
THE ROOT
עָבַר
ʿāvar
GROWS FROM
עבר
To cross over or pass through.
“passed through your border” in this verse is ʿāvar. The same verb frames both the requested crossing and its endpoint. Related words preserve that sense of crossing: עֵבֶר (ʿēver, beyond or across) and מַעֲבָר (maʿavār, passage). The verse distinguishes movement through the land from claiming what is in it.
ALSO GROWS
maʿavār: A crossing or passage through.
מַעֲבָר
It names passage itself as movement across a boundary.
ʿēver: The other side or region beyond.
עֵבֶר
The journey is defined by the border it reaches, not by taking what lies before it.
דֶּרֶךְ
derek
GROWS FROM
דרך
To tread or step; to make one’s way.
“road” in this verse is derek. The king’s way is דרך (derek, way or path), a word rooted in the act of treading. The path is made by steps, and the refusal to enter the fields or vineyards gives that route a concrete boundary.
ALSO GROWS
dārakh: To set the foot down or tread.
דָּרַךְ
The route is a way formed by steps, rather than a path cut across the neighboring fields.
midrākh: A place or surface for stepping.
מִדְרָךְ
This branch keeps the path rooted in where one places the foot; the travelers keep their steps to the king’s way.
THE PATTERN
Movement through another’s territory stays bounded when the route and what may be taken are clearly limited.
You will buy food from them for silver, that you may eat; and you will also buy waters from them for silver, that you may drink.Do not bend to the right or to the left; remove your foot from harm.And remain in that same house, eating and drinking what they give, for the worker is worthy of his pay. Do not step from house to house.THE THREAD
Let me cross through your land. By the road, by the road I will walk; I will not turn aside to the right hand or to the left.The same request repeats the roots עָבַר (ʿāvar, pass across) and דֶּרֶךְ (derek, way), along with the refusal to turn aside. Together they show a recurring shape of passage: cross through by the road, leaving the neighboring ground untouched.
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