What Does Numbers 6:25 Mean?
The LORD make his face shine upon you, and bend toward you.
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
The LORD make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee:THE KEY
The blessing joins the LORD’s shining face to his favor, making light itself a sign of welcome.
THE MEANING
You are addressed as someone toward whom the LORD’s face is turned, with its light reaching you. The blessing joins that nearness to favor: you are met with welcome, not only seen.
THE ROOT
יָאֵר
yaʾer
GROWS FROM
אור
Light; shine.
The verb means to cause light to shine, and the face is directed toward you. The image is not light at a distance, but the LORD’s face becoming illumination in your direction.
ALSO GROWS
ʾor: Light.
אוֹר
The root names the light carried by the shining face.
maʾor: A light-bearer or heavenly light.
מָאוֹר
This branch shows the root can name both light itself and what gives light.
וִיחֻנֶּךָּ
vichunneka
GROWS FROM
חנן
Show favor; act graciously.
“bend toward” in this verse is vichunneka. This verb shares its root with the Hebrew word for favor. The shining face and the gracious act belong together: illumination is joined to welcome, not left as a bare display of light.
ALSO GROWS
ḥen: Favor.
חֵן
This noun names the gift expressed by the verb in the blessing.
ḥannun: Gracious; showing favor.
חַנּוּן
This form describes the character of the one who grants favor.
THE PATTERN
Scripture pictures divine favor as a face turned toward people, with light making that nearness visible.
To the chief Musician on Neginoth, A Psalm or Song. Let God bend toward us, and let him bless us, and let his face shine upon us. Selah.Turn us again, O God, and cause your face to shine, and we will be delivered.For God, who said, Light shall shine out of darkness, has shone in our hearts, to give the light of knowing the weight of God in the face of Jesus, the Anointed One.THE THREAD
To the chief Musician on Neginoth, A Psalm or Song. Let God bend toward us, and let him bless us, and let his face shine upon us. Selah.Both verses use the same Hebrew root חנן (ḥ-n-n, show favor): Numbers asks that the LORD show favor to you, while this psalm asks that he show favor to us. The English words gracious and merciful conceal the shared root, carrying the same gift from one person to a people.
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