What Does Numbers 22:9 Mean?
And God came to Balaam, and said, What men are these with you?
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 God came unto Balaam, and said, What men are these with thee?THE KEY
God’s arrival brings the people beside Balaam into the center of the encounter.
THE MEANING
The question meets you at the edge of God’s arrival: who is alongside you, and what does that company mean? The people beside you are part of what becomes visible in the encounter.
THE ROOT
וַיָּבֹא
wayyavo
GROWS FROM
בוא
b-w-ʾ
To come, enter, or arrive.
“came” in this verse is wayyavo. The verb describes God arriving at Balaam, not speaking from a distance; the question follows that entry directly. The root also carries the sense of bringing something in, so God’s approach and the company around Balaam occupy the same immediate scene.
ALSO GROWS
hovi: Bring; cause to come.
הוֹבִיא
This form makes explicit the root’s link between coming and being brought into a scene.
mavo: Entrance; entryway.
מָבוֹא
The same root names an entrance, joining arrival with the act of entering.
THE PATTERN
A divine question brings a person’s position, relationships, or desire into speech.
And the LORD God called to Adam, and said to him, Where are you?And the LORD said to Cain, Where is Abel your brother? And he said, I do not know. Am I my brother's keeper?Then Jesus turned and watched them following, and said to them, What do you seek? They said to him, Teacher, where do you stay?THE THREAD
But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night, and said to him, Behold, you are a dead man, for the woman whom you took is held by a husband.The same Hebrew verb בוא (bo, come or enter) describes God’s arrival to Abimelech. There, too, the arrival turns toward a relationship involving another person, showing how the question “who is with thee?” brings human attachments into the encounter.
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