What Does Numbers 20:25 Mean?
Take Aaron and Eleazar his son, and bring them up to Mount Hor.
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
Take Aaron and Eleazar his son, and bring them up unto mount Hor:THE KEY
The next bearer enters the ascent before the one before him is gone.
THE MEANING
This verse brings what is ending and what follows into the same frame: Aaron and Eleazar ascend together. Eleazar’s name joins אֵל (El, God) with עָזַר (ʿazar, help), placing help inside the next step.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The next bearer need not wait outside the transition until the one before him disappears.
THE ROOT
וְהַעַל אֹתָם
wəhaʿal ʾotam
GROWS FROM
עלה
Rise, ascend; in this form, cause to go up.
“bring them up” in this verse is wəhaʿal ʾotam. The command brings Aaron and Eleazar into one ascent. The same root also names what rises, so the English phrase carries a wider sense of upward movement than it shows on its own.
ALSO GROWS
ʿālāh: Ascend, go up.
עָלָה
This is the verb’s root form: both men are carried into the same rising movement.
ʿōlāh: Burnt offering; literally associated with what rises.
עֹלָה
The shared root joins ascent with something that rises, a connection hidden when each word is translated separately.
אֶלְעָזָר
ʾElʿāzār
GROWS FROM
עזר
Help, support, come to another’s aid.
Eleazar’s name combines אֵל (El, God) with עָזַר (ʿazar, help): “God has helped.” The one who appears beside Aaron carries help in his name as the transition comes into view.
ALSO GROWS
ʿāzar: Help, assist.
עָזַר
This verb supplies the help named in Eleazar’s name.
ʿēzer: Help, aid, helper.
עֵזֶר
This noun shares the same root and makes the name’s sense of support audible.
THE PATTERN
A transition begins by bringing the next bearer into view while the current bearer is still present.
And Moses rose up, and his attendant Joshua, and Moses went up into the mountain of God.Moses called to Joshua and said to him before the eyes of all Israel, Hold fast and be firm. For you will bring this people into the land the LORD swore to their fathers to give them, and you will set them down in it as their portion.And these things you heard from me among many witnesses, place beside steady people who will be able to teach others also.THE THREAD
And Moses rose up, and his attendant Joshua, and Moses went up into the mountain of God.The verb translated “bring them up” comes from עלה (ʿālāh), “rise, ascend”; Exodus uses that same root when Moses “went up.” Joshua stands beside Moses in that ascent, linking the shared root to the presence of a next bearer.
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