Numbers 6:24 — Word Study
WLCיְבָרֶכְךָ֥ יְהוָ֖ה וְיִשְׁמְרֶֽךָ׃ ס
BSAMay the LORDYᵉhôvâh [Yehovah, The covenant Name of God] bless youbârak▸ [praise or honor, kneeling in worship] and keep youshâmar▸ [protect, attend to, or guard]
| Greek | English | Parsing |
|---|---|---|
| יְבָרֶכְךָ֥ | may he bless you | Verb piel imperfect third person masculine singular, suffix |
| יְהוָ֖ה | Yahweh | Noun proper |
| וְיִשְׁמְרֶֽךָ׃ ס | and may he keep you | Conjunction, verb qal third person masculine singular, suffix |
Every word in the verse. Click a row to open it in the panel on the left.
| BSB | ‘May the LORD bless you and keep you; |
| KJV | The LORD bless thee, and keep thee: |
| ASV | Jehovah bless thee, and keep thee: |
| YLT | 'Jehovah bless thee and keep thee; |
| WEB | ‘Yahweh bless you, and keep you. |
| BBE | May the Lord send his blessing on you and keep you: |
Where they part company is יְבָרֶכְךָ — see How Translations Differ.
The structure features two main clauses connected by a conjunction, emphasizing the dual aspects of the blessing.
5 commentators on this verse
Gill, Poole, Trapp, AdamClarke & more — read them ›
clause
subjectיהוה
The sentence as the grammar sees it Open the tree ›
Every word here is used elsewhere in the Old Testament.
Bars are logarithmic — אֵת, the commonest word in the Hebrew Bible, stands about 11,000 times, so a linear scale would leave everything else invisible. Click a row to open that word.
Deep Study — Numbers 6:24
Sections marked generated are written from the data on this page rather than by a named author. Everything else — the lexicon entries, the cross references, the manuscript readings, the counts — is quoted from its source unchanged.
Context — The Priestly Blessinggenerated
Numbers 6:24 is part of a larger passage where God instructs Aaron and his sons on how to bless the Israelites. This blessing emphasizes the desire for God's favor and protection over His people, reflecting the covenant relationship between God and Israel. The blessing is repeated in various forms throughout the Old Testament, indicating its significance in Israel's worship and community life.
Cross References
| Reference | Text (BSB) | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ruth 2:4 | Just then Boaz arrived from Bethlehem and said to the harvesters, “The LORD be with you.” “The LORD bless you,” they replied. |
| 2 | Psalm 134:3 | May the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth, bless you from Zion. |
| 3 | 1 Corinthians 14:16 | Otherwise, if you speak a blessing in spirit, how can someone who is uninstructed say “Amen” to your thanksgiving, since he does not know what you are saying? |
| 4 | Ephesians 6:24 | Grace to all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with an undying love. |
| 5 | Philippians 4:23 | The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. |
The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — 15 references, hung on the phrase they belong to
The Key Word — יְבָרֶכְךָ, ye.va.rekh.Khagenerated
The verb בָּרַךְ (*barak*) is a piel imperfect form, meaning 'may he bless you.' It is derived from a root that signifies 'to kneel,' which conveys the act of honoring or praising God, often in a posture of worship. In this context, it expresses a desire for God's favor upon the recipient.
This blessing is not just a wish; it is a declaration of God's intention to bestow grace and favor. The usage of the verb in the piel stem indicates an active engagement in the act of blessing, highlighting the relational aspect of God's interaction with His people.
How Translations Differ — measured against the Berean Standard Biblegenerated
This study reads the verse in the Berean Standard Bible, so the BSB is the wording every comparison below is made against.
Sentence Structuregenerated
The verse consists of two main clauses, both initiated by the subject יְהוָ֖ה (*Yahweh*). The first clause expresses the blessing, while the second clause emphasizes the keeping or guarding aspect. The structure highlights the dual nature of God's care — both in blessing and in protection.
The conjunction וְ (*and*) connects the two actions, indicating that both are integral to the blessing being pronounced. This reflects the comprehensive nature of God's favor.
Septuagint Backgroundgenerated
In the Septuagint, יְבָרֶכְךָ is rendered as σε (*se*), which means 'you.' This choice simplifies the expression but retains the focus on the recipient of the blessing.
The use of κύριος (*Kyrios*) for יְהוָ֖ה emphasizes the lordship and authority of God in the blessing, aligning with the traditional understanding of God's role in the lives of His people.
In plain words — the whole versegenerated
Numbers 6:24 presents a blessing given to the Israelites, where the LORD is asked to bless and keep them. This blessing reflects God's care and protection over His people, emphasizing His commitment to their well-being.
Frequently Asked Questionsgenerated
To bless means to confer favor and honor, often involving a sense of worship or reverence, as God does towards His people.
To keep means to guard or protect, suggesting that God actively watches over His people, ensuring their safety and well-being.
This blessing is a central part of the priestly duties, reinforcing the covenant relationship between God and Israel, and is often recited in communal worship.
Yes, blessings appear throughout the Bible, often reflecting God's favor and promises, such as in Genesis 12:2 and Psalm 67:1.
Reflection Questionsgenerated
- How can I recognize and appreciate the blessings in my life from God?
- In what ways can I be a blessing to others, reflecting God's favor?
- What does it mean to me personally that God promises to keep and protect me?
- How can I incorporate blessings into my daily life and interactions with others?
Commentators on this verse — 5 expositors, verse by verse
Each of these wrote on Numbers 6:24 itself, not merely on the chapter around it.
John Gill1697–1771Gill's Exposition of the Entire BibleThe Lord bless thee,.... Jehovah, Father, Son, and Spirit; the word "Jehovah" being three times used, and a different accent put to each word, denoting three distinct persons and one Jehovah,
Read John Gill on Numbers 6 →Matthew Poole1624–1679Matthew Poole's Commentary on the Holy BibleBless thee, i.e. bestow upon you all manner of blessings, temporal and spiritual. Compare . Keep thee, i.e. continue his blessings to thee, and preserve thee in and to the use of them; keep thee from sin and its bitter effects.
Read Matthew Poole on Numbers 6 →John Trapp1601–1669Trapp's Complete Commentary on the Old and New TestamentsNumbers 6:24 The LORD bless thee, and keep thee:Ver. 24. The Lord bless thee.] Here some observe the mystery of the holy Trinity. See it explained in 2 Corinthians 13:14.
Read John Trapp on Numbers 6 →AdamClarkeAdam Clarke's Commentary on the BibleVerse 24. The Lord bless thee] There are three forms of blessing here, any or all of which the priests might use on any occasion. The following is a verbal translation: - 1. May Jehovah bless thee and preserve thee! 2. May Jehovah cause his faces to shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee! 3. May Jehovah lift up his faces upon thee, and may be put prosperity unto thee! This is a very comprehensive and excellent prayer, and may be paraphrased thus: - 1. May God speak good unto thee, by giving thee his excellent promises! (See Clarke on Genesis 2:3.) May he preserve thee in the possession of all the good thou hast, and from all the evil with which thou art threatened! 2. May the Holy…
Read AdamClarke on Numbers 6 →Daniel Denison Whedon1808–1885Whedon's Commentary on the Bible24. Bless thee — This priestly benediction touchingly individualizes the whole congregation by the use of the singular pronoun.
Read Daniel Denison Whedon on Numbers 6 →The verse in English, compared — 17 translations, and where they part company
Every translation on this page is a decision someone had to make and commit to. Read down a column and you see one translator's judgement; read across a row and you see the range the Greek actually allows. The BSB is the wording the rest of this page is measured against, so it is listed first.
Modern formal
‘May the LORD bless you and keep you;
‘Yahweh bless you, and keep you.
‘May the LORD bless you and keep you;
“The Lord bless you and protect you;
Tyndale line
The LORD bless thee, and keep thee:
Jehovah bless thee, and keep thee:
The LORD bless thee, and keep thee:
The LORD bless thee, and keep thee:
The Lord blesse thee, and keepe thee,
Strictly literal
Jehovah bless thee, and keep thee;
'Jehovah bless thee and keep thee;
YHWH bless you and keep you;
The Lord bless thee, and preserve thee;
“May Yahweh bless you and keep you.
From the Latin
The Lord bless thee, and keep thee.
Simplified
‘May the Lord bless you and take care of you.
May the Lord send his blessing on you and keep you:
Counted from the translations carried on this site, not from a survey of every English Bible. A rendering shared by many versions is usually inherited rather than independently arrived at — the Tyndale line in particular runs through most of them.
The sentence as the grammar sees it — from the MACULA Hebrew treebank
This is not our own analysis: it is the scholarly syntax tree for the verse, showing how the clause actually holds together.
Boxes are the grammarian's groupings — clause, noun phrase, prepositional phrase.
The four witnesses to this verse — Masoretic, Septuagint, Samaritan, Qumran
The Masoretic Text, the Septuagint, and the Samaritan Pentateuch all agree on the wording of this verse. The Samaritan Pentateuch matches the Masoretic Text word for word, confirming the consistency of this blessing across different traditions.
יְבָרֶכְךָ֥ יְהוָ֖ה וְיִשְׁמְרֶֽךָ׃ ס
3 of the 3 words are matched. This is the word-by-word correspondence, not the Septuagint's own sentence — its word order and its articles are its own.
יברכך יהוה וישׁמרך
Agrees with the Masoretic Text here, word for word.
Four traditions, not one. “On the leather” means the letters physically survive on the scroll, as against letters an editor has supplied to fill a hole in it — a restoration is a scholar’s reading, not a reading of the manuscript. Words in [square brackets] are supplied; the notes count them apart from what survives.
The map of this verse — what each word keeps company with
This is a map of two things, both counted rather than judged. Company kept: which words stand within three words of each of these, anywhere in the Hebrew Bible — the thicker the line, the more often the pair meet compared with chance. Built from: the words a word is made out of, taken from its own Strong’s entry. It is not a map of meaning: nothing here claims two words mean the same thing. Click any circle to see the numbers behind it.
Lexicons — every word in Numbers 6:24
One dossier per word, with every reference work grouped by kind — Hebrew lexicons, morphology, Bible dictionaries, topical chains and the English of the translators themselves. The verse sits at the head of each block with the word under study lit, so you never lose your place. The panel above gives the short answer; this is the long one, and it is the part of the page worth indexing.
Every entry below is the lexicographer's own text. On the Hebrew: Brown-Driver-Briggs entire and its gloss set, Strong's Hebrew Dictionary, and Tyndale House's Translators Brief lexicon. Where a cell says a work has no entry, that work genuinely has none for this word.
The Hebrew word בָּרַךְ (*barak*) is built from a primitive root meaning 'to kneel' and encompasses a range of meanings including 'to bless' and 'to curse.' It can refer to blessing God or men, as well as the act of kneeling in adoration. The entries note that it can also imply a curse in certain contexts, reflecting a nuanced use in greetings and farewells.
[בָּרַךְ] 329 vb. kneel, bless
Qal
kneel down
bless
Niph. bless oneself
Pi.
bless God, adore with bended knees
God blesses
men bless men
salute, greet, with an invocation of blessing
bless, with the antithetical meaning curse from the greeting in departing, saying adieu to, taking leave of; but rather a blessing overdone and so really a curse as in vulgar English as well as in the Shemitic cognates
Pu.
pass. to be blessed, adored
prospered by God
have prosperity invoked, by Balaam
in gratitude
Hiph. and he made his camel kneel
Hithp. bless oneself, congratulate oneself in his heart
base
H1288 בָּרַךְ kneel, bless .. kneel down
. bless
. bless oneself
. . bless God, adore with bended knees
. God blesses
. men bless men
. salute, greet, with an invocation of blessing
. bless, with the antithetical meaning curse from the greeting in departing, saying adieu to, taking leave of; but rather a blessing overdone and so really a curse as in vulgar English as well as in the Shemitic cognates
. . pass. to be blessed, adored
. prospered by God
. have prosperity invoked, by Balaam
. in gratitude
. and he made his camel kneel
. bless oneself, congratulate oneself in his heart
1288 barak baw-rak'
a primitive root; to kneel; by implication to bless God (as
an act of adoration), and (vice-versa) man (as a benefit);
also (by euphemism) to curse (God or the king, as treason):--X
abundantly, X altogether, X at all, blaspheme, bless,
congratulate, curse, X greatly, X indeed, kneel (down),
praise, salute, X still, thank.
בָּרַךְ (ba.rakh) — to bless.
1) to bless, kneel
1a) (Qal)
1a1) to kneel
1a2) to bless
1b) (Niphal) to be blessed, bless oneself
1c) (Piel) to bless
1d) (Pual) to be blessed, be adored
1e) (Hiphil) to cause to kneel
1f) (Hithpael) to bless oneself
2) (TWOT) to praise, salute, curse
Aramaic equivalent: be.rakh (בְּרַךְ "to bless" H1289)
V-Piel-Juss-3ms | Suff — Verb piel imperfect third person masculine singular · suffixHVpi3ms/Sp2ms
יְהֹוָה (ye.ho.vah) is the proper name of the God of Israel, often rendered as Jehovah or the Lord. It signifies the self-existent or eternal nature of God. The name is closely associated with the revelation to Moses in Exodus 3:12-15 and is used in conjunction with other terms to denote sacred places. Some scholars suggest it derives from a root meaning 'to bring into being.'
יהוה c. 6823 i.e. יַהְוֶה n.pr.dei Yahweh, the proper name of the God of Israel—(1. MT יְהֹוָה 6518 (Qr אֲדֹנָי), or יֱהֹוִה 305 (Qr אֱלֹהִים) 2. Many recent scholars explain יַהְוֶה as Hiph. of הוה (= היה) the one bringing into being, life-giver)
יהוה is not used by E in Gn, but is given Ex 3:12-15 as the name of the God who revealed Himself to Moses at Horeb
יהוה is used with אלהים and suffixes, especially in D
the phrase † אֲנִי יהוה is noteworthy
יהוה is also used with several predicates, to form sacred names of holy places of Yahweh
base
H3068 יהוה i.e. יַהְוֶה n. pr. dei Yahweh, the proper name of the God of Israel
3068 Yhovah yeh-ho-vaw'
from 1961; (the) self-Existent or Eternal; Jehovah, Jewish
national name of God:--Jehovah, the Lord. Compare 3050, 3069.
see HEBREW for 01961
see HEBREW for 03050
see HEBREW for 03069
יְהֹוָה (ye.ho.vah) — LORD.
Jehovah = "the existing One"
1) the proper name of the one true God
1a) unpronounced except with the vowel pointings of a.do.na (אֲדֹנָי "Lord" H0136)
יְהֹוָה (ye.ho.vah) — The Lord.
Another name of ye.ru.sha.laim (יְרוּשָׁלִַ֫ם, יְרוּשְׁלֵם "Jerusalem" H3389)
יְהֹוָה (ye.ho.vah) — (Jerusalem of) the Lord.
Combined with ye.ru.sha.laim (יְרוּשָׁלִַ֫ם, יְרוּשְׁלֵם "Jerusalem" H3389)
N-proper — Noun properHNpt
The Hebrew word שָׁמַר (*shamar*) is a primitive root meaning to keep, guard, or observe. It encompasses a wide range of actions including protecting, waiting for, and celebrating obligations like the Sabbath. The verb appears in various forms, indicating nuances such as being on guard or refraining from certain actions. It is used extensively in the Old Testament, reflecting both physical and moral vigilance.
שָׁמַר 465 vb. keep, watch, preserve
Qal 425
keep, have charge of
keep, guard, captives
hence, watch for, wait for
watch, observe
keep, retain, of storing up (food)
keep within bounds, restrain
observe, celebrate
keep sabbath
of other obligations
observe = follow dictates of (prudence, justice, kindness, wisdom)
sts. י׳ subj.
keep, reserve, weeks of harvest
Niph.
36be on one's guard
keep oneself, refrain, abstain
be kept, guarded
Pi. those paying regard to false vanities
Hithp. I kept myself from
base
H8104 שָׁמַר keep, watch, preserve .. . keep, have charge of
. keep, guard, captives
. hence, watch for, wait for
. watch, observe
. . keep, retain, of storing up (food)
. keep within bounds, restrain
. . observe, celebrate
. keep sabbath
. of other obligations
. observe = follow dictates of (prudence, justice, kindness, wisdom)
. sts. י׳ subj.
. keep, reserve, weeks of harvest
. . be on one's guard
. keep oneself, refrain, abstain
. be kept, guarded
. those paying regard to false vanities
. I kept myself from
8104 shamar shaw-mar'
a primitive root; properly, to hedge about (as with thorns),
i.e. guard; generally, to protect, attend to, etc.:--beward,
be circumspect, take heed (to self), keep(-er, self), mark,
look narrowly, observe, preserve, regard, reserve, save
(self), sure, (that lay) wait (for), watch(-man).
שָׁמַר (sha.mar) — to keep: obey.
: obey/observe
1) to keep, guard, observe, give heed
1a) (Qal)
1a1) to keep, have charge of
1a2) to keep, guard, keep watch and ward, protect, save life
1a2a) watch, watchman (participle)
1a3) to watch for, wait for
1a4) to watch, observe
1a5) to keep, retain, treasure up (in memory)
1a6) to keep (within bounds), restrain
1a7) to observe, celebrate, keep (sabbath or covenant or commands), perform (vow)
1a8) to keep, preserve, protect
1a9) to keep, reserve
1b) (Niphal)
1b1) to be on one's guard, take heed, take care, beware
1b2) to keep oneself, refrain, abstain
1b3) to be kept, be guarded
1c) (Piel) to keep, pay heed
1d) (Hithpael) to keep oneself from
שָׁמַר (sha.mar) — to keep: guard.
: guard
1) to keep, guard, observe, give heed
1a) (Qal)
1a1) to keep, have charge of
1a2) to keep, guard, keep watch and ward, protect, save life
1a2a) watch, watchman (participle)
Conj | V-Qal-Juss-3ms | Suff — Conjunction · verb qal third person masculine singular · suffixHC/Vqu3ms/Sp2ms