What Does 1 Chronicles 6:55 Mean?
And they gave them Hebron in the land of Judah, and its pasturelands round about it.
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
And they gave them Hebron in the land of Judah, and the suburbs thereof round about it.THE KEY
The gift is a whole dwelling place: Hebron and the open land that encircles it.
THE MEANING
This verse speaks of belonging as a place with room around it: Hebron is given together with the surrounding open land. The gift is not only a city at its center, but the space that lets life extend beyond it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A place is only its center; everything around it is extra.
THE ROOT
סְבִיבוֹתֶיהָ
sevivoteha
GROWS FROM
סבב
s-b-b
To turn, go around, or encircle.
“round about” in this verse is sevivoteha. The Hebrew says the open land lies around the city: the allocation wraps around its center. The verse presents a whole territory, not just a city handed over by name.
ALSO GROWS
savav: Turn or go around.
סָבַב
The verb carries the motion behind the surrounding space in the verse.
saviv: Around; surrounding.
סָבִיב
This related form makes the spatial sense explicit: the gift extends around the city.
וַיִּתְּנוּ
wayyittenu
GROWS FROM
נתן
n-t-n
To give, set, or place.
“gave” in this verse is wayyittenu. The word for giving also carries the sense of placing something somewhere. Hebron and its surrounding land are presented as a place assigned for dwelling, not merely as an abstract possession.
ALSO GROWS
mattanah: Gift.
מַתָּנָה
The gift word shares the same root, connecting the act of giving with what is received.
nethinim: Those given; temple servants.
נְתִינִים
Their name preserves the root’s sense of being set apart or assigned to a place of service.
חֶבְרוֹן
Ḥevron
GROWS FROM
חבר
ḥ-b-r
To join, associate, or connect.
Hebron’s name is traditionally connected with the root for joining and association. In a verse about a place being given, the name adds a sense of belonging and connection to the land.
ALSO GROWS
ḥavar: Join or associate.
חָבַר
This verb gives the name its joining sense.
ḥaver: Companion or associate.
חָבֵר
This branch shows how joining can describe a person bound in relation to others.
THE PATTERN
Provision for shared life places resources in common so a community has room to dwell and flourish.
Command the children of Israel to give the Levites cities to settle in from the inheritance of their holding, and you shall also give the Levites pasturelands for the cities round about them.And they gave them the city of Arba the father of Anak, which city is Hebron, in the hill country of Judah, with the pastures thereof round about it.For none among them lacked, for as many as owned fields or houses sold them and carried the prices of what was sold,THE THREAD
And God set them in the expanse of the heavens, to shine upon the earth.The Hebrew verb rendered “set” here is natan, the same root behind “gave” in this verse. It lets giving carry the sense of placing something in its fitting position.
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