Verse 13 - Numbers 6:24 - 26 (and a little rabbit chasing...)

Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

One of the things I'm discovering on this 26 verse journey is that sometimes there is an obvious and direct line to the verse I choose; sometimes that path is considerably convoluted and vague.

Today's verse came after a series of subtle nudges and prods, which I'm not even going to try to recount.

And it is a very familiar passage; our pastor pronounces this over our congregation almost every week.  So it's not going to be a stretch to really memorize it...mostly just matching the reference with the passage.

Here's the passage:

The LORD bless and keep you; the LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace - Numbers 6:24-26, NIV 84

As I said, it's very familiar, but I wanted to make sure I have it learned.  But...the next verse really caught my eye:

So they [the priests] will put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them.

I was riveted by the concept that the priests put the Lord's name on the people  with  this blessing...and that it was the Lord's name that was the blessing/carried the blessing.

NOTE:  That was pretty much where I planned to stop.  But somehow I wandered down a rabbit trail...you can follow it with me if you like...


Standard translation practice is that the all-caps LORD (Strong's 3068) is used to translate the Hebrew unpronounced Name of God, which is often rendered as Jehovah or Yahweh in English and means self existent or eternal one.

A quick skim of Zhodiates,  paying attention to the little numbers, shows that the first time word 3068  appears in the text is Genesis 2:4   - This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created.  When the LORD God made the earth and the heavens --   ( I'm switching over to KJV, because this is from Zhodiates...)


LORD is used as the active subject of a sentence several times in the following chapters, but we see that Abram ...built an altar unto the LORD, and called upon the name of the LORD.  (Gen. 12:8) 

For Abram to have called upon the name of the LORD,  that name had to have been revealed to him at some point prior to the altar.  Perhaps when he was first called to leave his father's house in 12:1 - Now the LORD had said unto Abram....?

We first see God's declaration identifying Himself as the LORD in  Gen 15:7 - I am the LORD that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees...   which exactly identifies the One who sent Moses  in Exodus 3: 15 -  ...say to the children of Israel, The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God  of Jacob, hath sent me to you:  this is my name forever, and this is my memorial unto all generations."

This is the name that the priests were to place on the people; and they carried both His name and His blessing; His name was in the blessing.