What Does Numbers 21:27 Mean?
Therefore those who speak in proverbs say, "Come into Heshbon, let the city of Sihon be built and made firm."
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
Wherefore they that speak in proverbs say, Come into Heshbon, let the city of Sihon be built and prepared:THE KEY
Heshbon carries the sense of reckoning, and the verse places that name beside a city being built and made firm.
THE MEANING
You stand at the threshold of Heshbon, a name resonant with reckoning, as its city is built and established. The verse holds two movements together: giving a place form and making it stand.
THE ROOT
חֶשְׁבּוֹן
Ḥeshbōn
GROWS FROM
חשב
to think, reckon, or account
Heshbon is more than a place name: it echoes the act of reckoning or considering. That resonance sits beside the verbs that follow, the named place is to be built and made firm.
ALSO GROWS
chashav: to think, reckon, or devise
חָשַׁב
The root gives Heshbon its sense of a place associated with thought or reckoning.
cheshbon: an account or calculation
חֶשְׁבּוֹן
The common noun shares the city’s name and makes its association with reckoning audible.
תִּבָּנֶה
tibbaneh
GROWS FROM
בנה
to build or give form
“built” in this verse is tibbaneh. The verse does not leave Heshbon as a name or an idea: it speaks of the city taking form. The same root also gives Hebrew its word for a building and its word for a builder.
ALSO GROWS
banah: to build
בָּנָה
This is the verb behind the city’s being built.
binyan: a building or construction
בִּנְיָן
The noun shows the root’s movement from the act of building to the formed structure.
boneh: a builder
בּוֹנֶה
This branch names the one who gives form through building.
וְתִכּוֹנֵן
vetikkonen
GROWS FROM
כון
to establish, set firm, or prepare
The city is not only built; it is also made firm. The second verb adds the work of establishing to the work of giving form, so the line holds both movements together.
ALSO GROWS
nakhon: established, firm, or ready
נָכוֹן
This adjective shows the root’s sense of a condition made stable.
makhon: a fixed place or foundation
מָכוֹן
This branch connects establishment with a place made secure.
THE PATTERN
What is built is also established, so taking form and standing firm belong together.
He shall build a house for my name, and I will set firm the throne of his kingdom for the ages.I will set your seed firm for the ages, and I will build your throne from generation to generation. Selah.Through wisdom a house is built, and through discernment it is set firm.THE THREAD
Through wisdom a house is built, and through discernment it is set firm.The same Hebrew roots appear here: בנה (banah), build, and כון (kun), establish. Proverbs places the pair beside wisdom and understanding, opening the line’s two movements: a thing takes form, then it is made firm.
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