What Does Numbers 26:3 Mean?
And Moses and Eleazar the priest spoke with them in the plains of Moab by Jordan near Jericho, saying,
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 Moses and Eleazar the priest spake with them in the plains of Moab by Jordan near Jericho, saying,THE KEY
Before a single word is given, the speakers’ names already say: drawn out, and God has helped.
THE MEANING
The word reaches you through Moses, whose name recalls being drawn out, and Eleazar, whose name says God has helped. You are met in the plain beside the Jordan, where a word is spoken at the edge of a crossing still ahead.
THE ROOT
מֹשֶׁה
Mosheh
GROWS FROM
מ־ש־ה
m-sh-h
To draw out.
Moses’ name is tied to being drawn out of water. The voice speaking here bears that remembered shape of deliverance, as the people stand beside the Jordan.
ALSO GROWS
māshāh: To draw out.
מָשָׁה
This is the verb behind the explanation of Moses’ name in Exodus 2:10.
meshîtihû: I drew him out.
מְשִׁיתִהוּ
This form in Exodus 2:10 makes the name a remembrance of being drawn out.
אֶלְעָזָר
Elʿazar
GROWS FROM
ע־ז־ר
ʿ-z-r
To help or aid; the name combines El, God, with azar, helped.
Eleazar’s name carries the testimony “God has helped.” Beside Moses, the names hold a pair of meanings: drawn out and helped by God.
ALSO GROWS
ʿēzer: Help or support.
עֵזֶר
This noun makes the help within Eleazar’s name tangible.
ʿāzar: To help or aid.
עָזַר
This verb is the root action carried in the name Eleazar.
דִּבֶּר
dibber
GROWS FROM
ד־ב־ר
d-b-r
To speak; to utter a word.
“spake” in this verse is dibber. The related noun davar can mean both “word” and “matter” or “thing.” Hebrew holds speech and what is spoken together, so this is not detached information: a word enters the people’s shared moment.
ALSO GROWS
dāvar: A word, matter, or thing.
דָּבָר
This branch shows how the spoken word can also name the matter being addressed.
medabber: Speaking; one who speaks.
מְדַבֵּר
This participle keeps the act of speaking active in the scene.
THE PATTERN
A name in Scripture can carry the act of deliverance or help that a life embodies.
And the child grew, and she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. And she called his name Moses, the one drawn out, and she said, Because from the waters I drew him out.Then Samuel took a stone and set it between Mizpeh and Shen, and called its name Ebenezer, the stone of help, saying, Hitherto the LORD has helped us.And she will bring forth a son, and you will call his name Jesus, the LORD's deliverance, for he will deliver his people from their missing.THE THREAD
And the child grew, and she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. And she called his name Moses, the one drawn out, and she said, Because from the waters I drew him out.This verse ties Moses’ name to being drawn out of the water. Beside Eleazar, “God has helped,” that name places two testimonies of deliverance and help among the voices speaking to you.
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