Bible Strands
Numbers 32:42
And Nobah went and captured Kenath and its villages and called it Nobah, after his own name.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Moses records the completion of the Transjordanian conquest campaign while addressing the tribes of Reuben and Gad during the final land allocation.
The words — קְנָת (kenat) = Kenath, and וַ/יִּקְרָא (va/yik.ra) = and he called. These verbs document the shift from military occupation to permanent territorial designation.
The thread — The motif of renaming conquered places appears in Numbers 32:41 with Havvoth-jair, reappears in 2 Samuel 18:18 with Absalom’s pillar, and is referenced in Psalms 49:11 regarding how the dead leave their names to their dwellings.
Why it lands — The passage requires reading the narrative as a record of tribal expansion where identity and ownership are secured through decisive action and the imposition of a new name on captured ground.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And Nobah went and took Kenath, and the villages thereof, and called it Nobah, after his own name.
Cross-references
- 2 Samuel 18:18 During his lifetime, Absalom had set up for himself a pillar in the King’s Valley, for he had said, “I have no son to preserve the memory of my name.” So he gave the pillar his name, and to this day it is called Absalom’s Monument.
- Psalms 49:11 Their graves are their eternal homes—their dwellings for endless generations—even though their lands were their namesakes.