What Does Numbers 33:29 Mean?
And they pulled up from Mithcah, and pitched in Hashmonah.
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 went from Mithcah, and pitched in Hashmonah.THE KEY
Mithcah means “sweetness,” making departure from sweetness one named stage in the journey.
THE MEANING
You meet a journey that moves from Mithcah (מִתְקָה, Mithqah, “sweetness”) to a new encampment. The verse holds departure and settling together: leaving one place and pausing in another are both part of the same passage.
THE ROOT
מִתְקָה
Mithqah
GROWS FROM
מ־ת־ק
To be sweet or pleasant.
Mithcah carries the root of sweetness inside its name, a quality that English leaves hidden in the place-name. The itinerary records that sweetness as one stage the travelers leave.
ALSO GROWS
māṯōq: Sweet; pleasant to the taste.
מָתוֹק
This branch gives the root’s sweetness a concrete, tasted form.
meṯeq: Sweetness; pleasantness.
מֶתֶק
This branch names the quality held in Mithcah’s name.
וַיַּחֲנוּ
wayyaḥănû
GROWS FROM
ח־נ־ה
To encamp or pitch camp.
“pitched” in this verse is wayyaḥănû. The verb shares its root with the Hebrew word for a camp, so the verse places a temporary dwelling inside the journey. Departure and encampment are paired movements along the same route.
ALSO GROWS
maḥăneh: Camp; encampment.
מַחֲנֶה
This noun comes from the same root as “pitched,” naming the place made by the act.
ḥōneh: One who is encamping.
חֹנֶה
This form describes the act of settling temporarily that the verse records.
THE PATTERN
A journey unfolds through successive stages of movement and temporary dwelling.
And all the assembly of the children of Israel pulled up from the wilderness of Sin in their stages, by the mouth of the LORD, and pitched in Rephidim. And there were no waters for the people to drink.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.And we sailed away from there, and came opposite Chios on the coming day; on the day after, we came alongside Samos, and stayed at Trogyllium; and on the day held next to it we came to Miletus.THE THREAD
My son, eat honey, for it is good, and the honeycomb is sweet upon your palate.The name מִתְקָה (Mithqah, “sweetness”) shares its root with מָתוֹק (māṯōq, “sweet”), the word used here for the honeycomb. Proverbs gives that root a taste on the tongue; Numbers names sweetness as a place along the route, one the travelers leave.
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