What Does Numbers 6:23 Mean?
Speak to Aaron and to his sons, saying, Thus you shall bless the children of Israel, saying to them,
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
Speak unto Aaron and unto his sons, saying, On this wise ye shall bless the children of Israel, saying unto them,THE KEY
Here, blessing is a spoken act of bestowal whose Hebrew root still carries the posture of bending the knee.
THE MEANING
The blessing reaching you is given a spoken form; it is not left as a vague wish. The words that follow name keeping and favor as the shape of that blessing.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that blessing is only a private wish: here, it is spoken in given words over people.
THE ROOT
תְבָרֲכוּ
tevarakhu
GROWS FROM
בָּרַךְ
barak
To kneel or bend the knee; to bless, to bestow favor.
The verb translated “bless” carries the root בָּרַךְ (barak, to kneel or bend the knee; to bless). English gives the act of blessing, while the Hebrew root also holds a posture of bestowal inside the word.
ALSO GROWS
berekh: Knee
בֶּרֶךְ
The shared root holds a bodily posture inside the word for blessing.
berakhah: Blessing
בְּרָכָה
This noun names the blessing that Aaron and his sons are instructed to speak.
THE PATTERN
Blessing becomes a spoken gift that names goodness for another person.
The LORD bless you, and guard you.And I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and I will make your name great, and be a blessing.And he led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting his hands, he blessed them.THE THREAD
The LORD bless you, and guard you.The next verse repeats the Hebrew root בָּרַךְ (barak, to bless), turning the instruction into the spoken words themselves. The blessing opens as keeping and favor, with wholeness named in the lines that follow.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
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