What Does Numbers 22:19 Mean?

Now therefore, I ask you, settle here this night as well, that I may know what more the LORD will say to me.

Numbers 22:19 · SDV

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.

This verse in the King James

King James wording

King James Version

Now therefore, I pray you, tarry ye also here this night, that I may know what the LORD will say unto me more.

THE KEY

The Hebrew says, “what will the LORD add to speak with me”, “more” is the act of adding, not just an amount.

THE MEANING

You can stand with a word already spoken and still ask what may be added. The request joins knowing with further speech: it seeks what the LORD will disclose in encounter. The words hold openness to further disclosure alongside the tension of asking again.

THE ROOT

יֹסֵף

yōsēp̄ from yāsap̄

GROWS FROM

יסף

to add, increase, or continue

The word rendered “more” is a form of the verb “to add”: Balaam asks what the LORD will add to speaking with him. English turns that action into a quantity, hiding the sense of an addition to speech already received.

ALSO GROWS

yāsap̄: to add, continue, or do again

יָסַף

This is the verb behind “more,” making the request one for what the LORD may add to his speech.

Yosef: he adds; may he add

יוֹסֵף

The name Joseph comes from this root, linking the verse’s “more” to the language of addition.

יָדַע

yādaʿ

GROWS FROM

ידע

to know, recognize, or perceive

The verb for “know” carries the sense of knowing through perception and encounter. Balaam seeks that knowing through what the LORD may add to his speech, so the verse joins knowing with disclosure.

ALSO GROWS

daʿat: knowledge or understanding

דַּעַת

This noun from the same root shows that knowing can become an apprehended understanding.

hôdîa: to make known or inform

הוֹדִיעַ

This causative form shows the other side of knowing: something is disclosed so it can be known.

THE PATTERN

Knowing the LORD is pictured as receiving what is disclosed through speech and shown as a way.

And she called his name Joseph, may he add, and said, The LORD shall add to me another son.

Genesis 30:24 · SDVJoseph’s name comes from ⁨יסף⁩ (yasaph, add), the same root rendered “more” here.

Now therefore, please, if I have found favor in your eyes, make me know your way, that I may know you, that I may find favor in your eyes. And see that this nation is your people.

Exodus 33:13 · SDVMoses asks to know through disclosure, using ⁨ידע⁩ (yada, know or perceive) and asking the LORD to show his way.

And this is the life of the ages, that they might know you, the only God of truth, and Jesus, the Anointed One, whom you have sent.

John 17:3 · SDVThe Greek ⁨γινώσκω⁩ (ginōskō, know or perceive) presents knowing God as life itself.

THE THREAD

Now therefore, please, if I have found favor in your eyes, make me know your way, that I may know you, that I may find favor in your eyes. And see that this nation is your people.

Exodus 33:13 · SDV

Both verses use ⁨ידע⁩ (yada, know or perceive): Balaam waits to know what the LORD may add to his speech, while Moses asks to see the LORD’s way so he may know him. The shared root makes spoken disclosure and a shown way two forms of encounter.

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