What Does Numbers 34:20 Mean?
And for the branch of the children of Simeon, Shemuel the son of Ammihud.
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 of the tribe of the children of Simeon, Shemuel the son of Ammihud.THE KEY
Even in a list of tribes, Simeon’s name keeps the language of hearing attached to a people with a named place among the whole.
THE MEANING
This line makes belonging specific: Simeon has a place in the larger inheritance, and that place is carried by a named representative. The name Simeon carries the sound of hearing, so the people’s identity holds a trace of being heard.
THE ROOT
שִׁמְעוֹן
Shimʿon
GROWS FROM
שׁמע
sh-m-ʿ
To hear, listen, or attend.
Simeon’s name grows from the root for hearing, a connection made explicit when Leah names him because the LORD has heard her. English presents a tribal name; the Hebrew keeps hearing within the name carried into this list.
ALSO GROWS
shamaʿ: He heard; to hear or listen.
שָׁמַע
This verb supplies the root carried in Simeon’s name.
shemaʿ: Hear and respond.
שְׁמַע
It shows hearing as attention that meets what is heard, not sound merely passing by.
shemuʿah: A report or something heard.
שְׁמוּעָה
This branch makes hearing the way news or testimony enters a community.
THE PATTERN
A name can preserve the encounter of hearing or petition within a person’s place in a larger people.
And she conceived again, and bore a son, and she said, Because the LORD has heard that I was hated, he has therefore given me this son also. And she called his name Simeon, Heard.When the days had come around, Hannah conceived and bore a son, and called his name Samuel, the asked-for one, saying, Because I have asked him of the LORD.But the messenger said to him, Do not be seized by awe, Zacharias, for your need has been heard and answered; and your wife Elisabeth will bring forth a son for you, and you will call his name John.THE THREAD
And she conceived again, and bore a son, and she said, Because the LORD has heard that I was hated, he has therefore given me this son also. And she called his name Simeon, Heard.Leah directly connects the name Simeon with the LORD hearing her, so the root is more than a sound echo. Numbers 34 places Simeon within the people’s inheritance, with that language of hearing still carried in the name.
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