What Does Numbers 25:14 Mean?
Now the name of the man of Israel who was killed, even the one killed with the Midianite woman, was Zimri, the son of Salu, a lifted one of the house of the fathers among the Simeonites.
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
Now the name of the Israelite that was slain, even that was slain with the Midianitish woman, was Zimri, the son of Salu, a prince of a chief house among the Simeonites.THE KEY
The verse names Zimri’s leadership and family alongside his death, keeping him visible as a person rooted in a tribe.
THE MEANING
You meet Zimri as both the man slain with the Midianitish woman and the son of Salu, a prince of a chief house among the Simeonites. The verse holds his death and his place in the community together.
THE ROOT
נְשִׂיא
nāśîʾ
GROWS FROM
נשא
n-ś-ʾ
To lift, carry, or bear.
“lifted one” in this verse is nāśîʾ. The title for Zimri is built from a root meaning to lift or carry, and the verse identifies him as head of an ancestral house. That adds the sense of someone elevated to public leadership beneath the English word “prince.”
ALSO GROWS
nāśāʾ: To lift, carry, or bear.
נָשָׂא
This verb makes the root’s lifting and carrying sense audible beneath the title of leader.
maśśāʾ: A burden or load.
מַשָּׂא
This noun shares the root’s carrying sense and shows the word family beneath Zimri’s leadership title.
זִמְרִי
Zimrî
GROWS FROM
זמר
z-m-r
To sing or make music.
Zimri’s name is commonly linked with זמר, to sing or make music; the verse itself does not explain the name, so this is an echo rather than an explanation of his death. The name’s musical root sits beneath the stark account of his death and the precise details of his family and tribe.
ALSO GROWS
zāmar: To sing or make music.
זָמַר
This verb is the root commonly associated with Zimri’s name.
zemîrāh: A song or melody.
זְמִרָה
This noun makes the song and music sense of the same root concrete.
THE PATTERN
The text makes communal rupture concrete by naming people and locating them through lineage, relationship, or public role.
But the children of Israel broke trust with the devoted thing, for Achan, son of Carmi, son of Zabdi, son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took from the devoted thing, and the burning of the LORD's anger flared against the children of Israel.But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a holding. And he drew aside from the price, his wife also knowing it, and brought a certain part and placed it at the feet of the sent ones.But I have a few things against you, because you have there those who grip the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to throw a snare before the children of Israel, to eat things offered to images and to commit fornication.THE THREAD
These were the called ones of the assembly, the lifted ones of the staffs of their fathers, heads of thousands in Israel.The Hebrew title translated “princes” here shares the root נשא with Zimri’s title in Numbers 25:14. Numbers 1:16 uses it for tribal heads, making clear that Zimri’s title marks a public role grounded in his ancestral house and tribe.
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