What Does 1 Chronicles 6:57 Mean?
And to the sons of Aaron they gave the cities of Judah, Hebron, the city of refuge, and Libnah with her pasturelands, and Jattir, and Eshtemoa with their pasturelands.
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 to the sons of Aaron they gave the cities of Judah, namely, Hebron, the city of refuge, and Libnah with her suburbs, and Jattir, and Eshtemoa, with their suburbs,THE KEY
The refuge is named Hebron, a name linked to joining, so safety is placed within shared life.
THE MEANING
Here, refuge is a real place within shared life: Hebron is named as a city of refuge among the towns given to Aaron’s sons. Safety takes concrete shape in a place held within a community and its surrounding spaces.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that refuge requires leaving all shared life behind is unsettled here: refuge takes the form of a named city among a people’s towns.
THE ROOT
חֶבְרוֹן
Ḥevron
GROWS FROM
חבר
Join, associate, bind together.
Hebron’s name is commonly connected to the root for joining or association. Beside “city of refuge,” that name places safety within the language of belonging to a shared community.
ALSO GROWS
ḥābar: To join or associate.
חָבַר
The root holds the idea of joining inside the city’s name.
ḥever: A company, band, or association.
חֶבֶר
This branch echoes the shared life in which the refuge is located.
ḥāver: A companion or associate.
חָבֵר
The word links joining with companionship, giving the place-name a communal dimension.
נָתְנוּ
natnu from nātan
GROWS FROM
נתן
Give, set, place.
“gave” in this verse is natnu from nātan. The verb for giving also carries the sense of setting or placing. These towns are not merely transferred; they are placed as lived spaces within the community.
ALSO GROWS
nātan: To give, set, or place.
נָתַן
This is the verb behind “they gave,” holding provision and placement together.
mattānāh: A gift or present.
מַתָּנָה
This branch shows the root’s connection between giving and what is received.
netīnîm: Given or assigned ones; the Nethinim.
נְתִינִים
The name for these assigned servants carries the same root of giving and placing into a role.
THE PATTERN
A refuge becomes real when it is given a place within the shared world.
Among the cities you shall give the Levites, there shall be six cities of escape, which you shall appoint for the crusher, so that he may flee there; and you shall add forty-two cities to them.Speak to the children of Israel, saying, Set for yourselves cities of refuge, of which I spoke to you by the hand of Moses.So that through two unshifting deeds, in which it is without power for God to lie, we might have a strong comfort, we who have fled for refuge to grip the hope lying before us.THE THREAD
Thus they gave to the children of Aaron the priest Hebron with her pastures, to be a city of refuge for the slayer; and Libnah with her pastures,Joshua names the same towns and states Hebron’s purpose plainly: refuge for the slayer. It makes the list’s geography part of the protection itself, refuge is placed among Aaron’s towns.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us