What Does Numbers 3:27 Mean?

And of Kohath was the family of the Amramites, and the family of the Izeharites, and the family of the Hebronites, and the family of the Uzzielites; these are the families of the Kohathites.

Numbers 3:27 · 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

And of Kohath was the family of the Amramites, and the family of the Izeharites, and the family of the Hebronites, and the family of the Uzzielites: these are the families of the Kohathites.

THE KEY

The list’s family tree contains Hebron, a name rooted in joining: here, connection is one of the ways belonging takes shape.

THE MEANING

Your belonging can hold distinct identities without flattening them into one. The verse names the Amramite, Izeharite, Hebronite, and Uzzielite families as separate branches within the larger Kohathite family.

THE ROOT

הַחֶבְרֹנִי

ha-Ḥeḇrōnî

GROWS FROM

חבר

ḥ-b-r

Join, bind together, associate.

“Hebronite” in this verse is ha-Ḥeḇrōnî. Hebron carries this joining root, and here it names one distinct family branch within a larger family. The name lets connection and distinct identity stand together.

ALSO GROWS

ḥāḇar: To join or bind together.

חָבַר

This joining sense underlies the name Hebron, one of the branches named within the Kohathite family.

ḥāḇēr: A companion or associate.

חָבֵר

This branch gives joining a personal form, echoing how the verse places named families in relation to one another.

הָעֻזִּיאֵלִי

ha-ʿUzzîʾēlî

GROWS FROM

עזז

ʿ-z-z

Be strong; have strength or might.

“Uzzielite” in this verse is ha-ʿUzzîʾēlî. Uzziel joins the sense of strength with El, “God”: “God is my strength.” The family name carries an identity inside the list, not just a label for a branch.

ALSO GROWS

ʿōz: Strength or might.

עֹז

This noun carries the strength embedded in the name Uzziel.

ʿaz: Strong, fierce, or bold.

עָז

This related form shows the root’s force as a quality, which the name joins to God.

THE PATTERN

A people is held as a whole through distinct branches that remain named.

These are the families of the sons of Noah, by their births, in their nations; and from these the nations were parted in the earth after the flood.

Genesis 10:32 · SDVThe verse traces nations through named families, showing the larger whole taking shape through distinct branches.

And the sons of Kohath were Amram, and Izehar, and Hebron, and Uzziel; and the years of the life of Kohath were one hundred thirty-three years.

Exodus 6:18 · SDVThe same four names appear as Kohath’s sons, laying out the family branches that Numbers names.

So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but fellow citizens of the set-apart ones, and of the household of God.

Ephesians 2:19 · SDVBelonging is pictured as entry into a household, where those once described as outsiders have a place.

THE THREAD

This shall be the serving of the sons of Kohath in the tent of meeting, about the most set-apart things.

Numbers 4:4 · SDV

The next chapter gives the Kohathites a defined service around the most holy things. The family list opens into an ordered household whose branches carry distinct roles.

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