What Does Numbers 26:20 Mean?
And the sons of Judah after their families were these. Of Shelah, the family of the Shelanites. Of Pharez, the family of the Pharzites. Of Zerah, the family of the Zarhites.
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 the sons of Judah after their families were; of Shelah, the family of the Shelanites: of Pharez, the family of the Pharzites: of Zerah, the family of the Zarhites.THE KEY
The breach carried in Perez’s name does not end the line; it becomes a family counted among Judah’s clans.
THE MEANING
This verse names three family lines within Judah: Shelah, Perez, and Zerah. Perez’s name carries the sense of a breach or breaking through, and here that name belongs to a whole clan. The moment of breaking through remains visible in the family’s name as generations are counted.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A breach can only end a line. Here, the name Perez is carried forward as a clan.
THE ROOT
פֶּרֶץ
Perets
GROWS FROM
פרץ
To break through or burst out; a breach.
“Pharez” in this verse is Perets. The name preserves the breaking-through as part of the person’s nature. In this verse, that name has become a family line: what was once a breach is now counted through its descendants.
ALSO GROWS
parats: Break through, burst out.
פָּרַץ
This verb appears in Perez’s naming story, where the child breaks through first.
perets: Breach, break-through.
פֶּרֶץ
This noun is the name itself, carried here by a clan descended from Perez.
זֶרַח
Zeraḥ
GROWS FROM
זרח
To rise or shine forth.
Zerah’s name carries the image of rising or shining forth. Beside Perez’s name of breaking through, it shows how the clan list preserves distinct name-natures within Judah.
ALSO GROWS
zarach: Rise, shine forth.
זָרַח
The verb gives the name Zerah its image of something coming into view.
mizrach: East, the place of sunrise.
מִזְרָח
This related word carries the same rising image into a direction, extending the name’s sense of emergence.
THE PATTERN
What breaks through can be named and carried forward as a people.
And it came to be, as he drew back his hand, and behold, his brother came out, and she said, How have you broken through? Let this breach be upon you. Therefore his name was called Pharez, the breach.And David came to Baal-perazim, and David struck them there, and said, The LORD has broken through my enemies before me, like a breach of waters. Therefore he called the name of that place Baal-perazim, lord of breaches.The one who breaks through goes up before them. They break through, pass through the gate, and go out through it. Their king passes before them, and the LORD is at their head.THE THREAD
And it came to be, as he drew back his hand, and behold, his brother came out, and she said, How have you broken through? Let this breach be upon you. Therefore his name was called Pharez, the breach.Genesis ties Pharez’s name to the words “broken forth” and “breach.” Numbers shows that this name now marks a whole clan, carrying that moment of emergence through the generations.
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