What Does Numbers 34:21 Mean?
For the branch of Benjamin, Elidad the son of Chislon.
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
Of the tribe of Benjamin, Elidad the son of Chislon.THE KEY
Benjamin’s “tribe” is matteh, a word also meaning staff or rod, from natah, “to stretch out”: the people appear as an extension within a larger whole.
THE MEANING
Benjamin (בִּנְיָמִין, Binyamin, “son of the right hand”) has a place in the list through Elidad (אֱלִידָד, Elidad, “God has loved”), son of Chislon (כִּסְלוֹן, Kislon, “confidence”). The verse makes belonging specific: a people, a representative, and a family line.
THE ROOT
מַטֵּה
matteh
GROWS FROM
נטה
to stretch out, extend, incline
“branch” in this verse is matteh. English gives only “tribe,” but matteh also means a staff or rod and comes from natah, “to stretch out.” Benjamin is presented as a distinct extension within the people, carried here by a named representative.
ALSO GROWS
natah: to stretch out, extend, incline
נָטָה
This is the verbal root beneath matteh, so the tribal word carries an image of extension.
matteh: staff, rod; tribe
מַטֵּה
The verse uses this word for Benjamin’s tribal unit; the English “tribe” leaves its concrete staff or rod sense out of view.
THE PATTERN
A whole becomes visible through particular members and representatives who hold a place within it.
And with you there shall be a man of every staff; each one a head of the house of his fathers.But now God has set the limbs, each one of them, in the body, as he willed.Now, brothers, look out among you seven men of good witness, full of the Set-Apart Breath and wisdom, whom we may set over this need.THE THREAD
And with you there shall be a man of every staff; each one a head of the house of his fathers.The Hebrew word matteh names the tribe in both verses, carrying the same word-family image of extension. Numbers 1:4 makes that structure explicit by pairing each tribe with a head connected to a father’s house.
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