What Does Numbers 33:20 Mean?
And they pulled up from Rimmonparez, and pitched in Libnah.
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 they departed from Rimmon-parez, and pitched in Libnah.THE KEY
The place they leave carries פֶּרֶץ (perets, “breach” or “break-through”) in its name.
THE MEANING
Your way unfolds in stages: you leave one place and settle at another. The verse holds departure and rest together as parts of the same continuing journey.
THE ROOT
פָּרֶץ
perets
GROWS FROM
פרץ
To break through; make a breach
“Rimmon-parez” in this verse is perets. The name contains פֶּרֶץ (perets, “breach” or “break-through”), the same root as פָּרַץ (pāraṣ, “break through”), rendered “broken forth” in Genesis 38:29. The itinerary leaves this word inside the place-name, though it does not explain the name’s significance.
ALSO GROWS
pāraṣ: Break through; burst out
פָּרַץ
This verb from the same root appears as “broken forth” in the verse that names Pharez.
perets: Breach; break-through
פֶּרֶץ
This is the name element carried by Rimmon-parez, with its root sense hidden beneath the English transliteration.
וַיִּסְעוּ
wayyisʿu
GROWS FROM
נסע
Set out; journey
“pulled up” in this verse is wayyisʿu. The verb נָסַע (nāsaʿ, “set out” or “journey”) belongs to the language of Israel’s successive journeys. Its related noun מַסָּע (massāʿ, “journey” or “stage”) names movement as part of a longer route, so this departure is one step in an unfolding sequence.
ALSO GROWS
nāsaʿ: Set out; travel
נָסַע
This is the verb behind “departed,” placing the verse’s movement within the journey.
massāʿ: Journey; journey-stage
מַסָּע
Numbers 33:1 uses this related word for the journeys that make up the route.
לִבְנָה
livnah
GROWS FROM
לבן
White; become white
Libnah is associated with לָבָן (lāḇān, “white”), a meaning the English place-name leaves untranslated. The verse gives no explanation of the name, but its Hebrew sound carries this color meaning into the destination.
ALSO GROWS
lāḇān: White; white one
לָבָן
This familiar form shows the root’s color meaning behind the name Libnah.
livneh: White poplar
לִבְנֶה
The same root also appears in the name of a pale tree, carrying the color sense into a concrete word.
THE PATTERN
A journey advances through repeated departures and temporary places to dwell.
And they pulled up from Succoth, and pitched at Etham, at the edge of the wilderness.By trust he dwelt alongside in the land of promise, as in another's land, settling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, co-heirs of the same promise.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 names Pharez through פֶּרֶץ (perets, “breach” or “break-through”) and פָּרַץ (pāraṣ, “break through”), rendered “broken forth.” Numbers carries that same root in Rimmon-parez, so the place-name they leave holds an echo of breaking through beneath the itinerary.
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