And they shall put my name on the children of Israel, and I will bless them.
put my
Exodus 3:13-15 And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them? …
Exodus 6:3 And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, but by my name JEHOVAH was I not known to them.
Exodus 34:5-7 And the LORD descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD…
and I will
Numbers 23:20 Behold, I have received commandment to bless: and he hath blessed; and I cannot reverse it.
Genesis 12:2,3 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: …
Genesis 32:26,29 And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me…
and I will bless them.
The promise of blessing is central to the covenant relationship between God and Israel. In the context of Numbers 6, the blessing is not just material prosperity but encompasses peace, protection, and divine favor. This blessing is a fulfillment of God's promise to Abraham that through his descendants, all nations would be blessed (Genesis 12:3). The ultimate blessing is realized in Jesus Christ, who is the fulfillment of the law and the prophets, bringing spiritual blessings to all who believe (Ephesians 1:3). The assurance of God's blessing underscores His faithfulness and the unmerited favor bestowed upon His people.
• “They” refers to Aaron and his sons—God-appointed priests commissioned to speak His blessing (Numbers 6:22-23; Deuteronomy 10:8).
• The tiny word “so” ties the priestly act directly to God’s command. Blessing Israel is not optional liturgy; it is obedience that releases divine favor (1 Chronicles 23:13).
• God cares about order. He doesn’t leave blessing to human improvisation; He prescribes the exact words (Numbers 6:24-26), showing that Scripture, not personal invention, carries the weight of heaven.
• “Name” in Scripture encompasses God’s character, authority, and presence (Exodus 3:15; Psalm 20:1).
• To “put” His name is more than mentioning it—it is an act of placement, as if a royal seal were pressed onto the people.
• The priests verbally “attach” Yahweh’s identity to Israel, declaring that the Lord alone is their source of life, protection, and peace (Deuteronomy 12:5; 1 Kings 8:29).
• This points ahead to Christ, through whom God’s name is written on believers’ hearts and foreheads (Revelation 3:12).
• The blessing targets God’s covenant people in their entirety—men, women, children, the strong and the stragglers alike (Deuteronomy 7:6).
• God marks them as His treasured possession, distinguishing them from surrounding nations (Isaiah 43:1).
• The corporate scope reminds us that faith is personal yet never private; belonging to God means belonging to a people (1 Peter 2:9).
• When the priests raise their hands over the camp, every tribe hears the same words, underscoring unity under one Name.
• God Himself guarantees the outcome. The priests proclaim; the Lord performs (Genesis 22:17; Malachi 3:10).
• “I will” is covenant certainty, not wishful thinking. The Creator commits His infinite resources to the good of His people.
• The blessing encompasses material provision, spiritual peace, and protective grace (Ephesians 1:3), all rooted in God’s unchanging faithfulness.
• The verse closes the priestly blessing by shifting the spotlight from human mouthpieces back to the divine Source, ensuring no one mistakes liturgy for magic.
Numbers 6:27 shows a beautifully simple chain of grace: obedient priests speak God’s prescribed words; those words place His very name upon His people; and God Himself responds with guaranteed blessing. The verse affirms that when God’s authority is rightly invoked over His covenant community, He delights to pour out tangible favor, marking His people as His own and lavishing them with His goodness.
Verse 27. - They shall put my name upon the children of Israel. The "name of God is uniformly treated in Scripture as something very different from a mere arrangement of letters or an arbitrary vocal sound. All nations have bad names for the Supreme Being, but there was nothing sacred about them, except from association. The name of God was not of man, nor from man, but of his own direct revelation (Exodus 6:3), and was therefore of an unspeakable sanctity (Exodus 20:7; Exodus 33:19). Like the "word" of God, it cannot be dissociated from God himself. It is in some sense an extension outwards, into the sphere of the created and sensible, of the ineffable virtues of the Godhead itself. It stands in a real, though un-assignable, relation to infinite goodness and power, and therefore it comes fraught with untold blessing (or perchance cursing) to those on whom it lights. Hence, to put the name of God - the covenant name - upon the people had a real meaning. No one could do it except by his express direction; and when it was so done there was an invisible reality answering to the audible form; with the name pronounced in blessing came the blessing itself, came the special providence and presence of God, to abide upon such at least as were worthy of it. It is a fact, the significance of which cannot be denied, that the name which was commanded to be put upon the people was lost, and irrecoverably lost, by the later Jews. Out of an exaggerated dread of possible profanation, they first disobeyed the command by substituting Adonai for that name outside the sanctuary; and finally, after the death of Simeon the Just, the priests ceased to pronounce that name at all, and therefore lost the tradition by which the pronunciation was fixed. Our method of spelling and pronouncing the name as Jehovah is merely conventional, and almost certainly incorrect. It would seem to be the more devout opinion that the name itself, as revealed by God and uttered by many generations of priests, was forfeited (like Paradise), was withdrawn, and ought not to be inquired after. And I will bless them. Here is the precise truth of all effectual benediction: they shall put my name;... I will bless. The outward form was ministered by the priests, the inward reality was of God and from God alone. It is observable that the form of blessing is expressed in the singular; either(1) because all Israel was regarded as one, even as the first-born son of God (Exodus 4:22, 23; Hosea 11:1), or
(2) because all real blessing must in truth be individual - a nation can only be blessed in its several members.
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