What Does 1 Chronicles 6:77 Mean?
Unto those left behind among the sons of Merari were given out of the tribe of Zebulun, Rimmono with her pasturelands, and Tabor with her 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
Unto the rest of the children of Merari were given out of the tribe of Zebulun, Rimmon with her suburbs, Tabor with her suburbs:THE KEY
The allotment includes the space around the town: the open margin is part of what makes a place livable.
THE MEANING
A place to dwell includes its margin: the open land around the town is named alongside the town itself. Shared service belongs within a wider inheritance, with room for life beyond the built center.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A dwelling is only its buildings and boundaries, and its provision ends at the town’s edge.
THE ROOT
מִגְרָשֶׁיהָ
migrasheha
GROWS FROM
גרש
גָּרַשׁ (garash) means “drive out” or “expel”; מִגְרָשׁ (migrash) refers to the open common or pastureland around a town.
“pasturelands” in this verse is migrasheha. The word rendered “suburbs” names the open land attached to a town, not simply more built-up streets. Its repetition makes the space around each town part of the allotment itself.
ALSO GROWS
garash: Drive out, expel.
גָּרַשׁ
This related verb shares the root consonants with the word for the open land around a town, drawing attention to the space beyond the built center.
migrash: Open common or pastureland around a town.
מִגְרָשׁ
Each town in the verse comes with its surrounding land, so the grant includes room beyond the settlement.
זְבֻלוּן
Zevulun
GROWS FROM
זבל
זָבַל (zaval) carries the sense of dwelling with or honoring, as reflected in the name’s wordplay in Genesis 30:20.
The naming wordplay in Genesis 30:20 links Zebulun with dwelling with or honoring. Here the territory named for that tribe provides other people with towns and open land.
ALSO GROWS
yizbeleni: “He will dwell with me” or “honor me.”
יִזְבְּלֵנִי
Genesis 30:20 uses this verb in the wordplay around the name Zebulun, joining the name with dwelling.
zevul: Dwelling or habitation; an exalted abode.
זְבֻל
This related noun echoes the verse’s focus on places made for dwelling.
THE PATTERN
A community makes room for shared service by providing both a place to dwell and what sustains life there.
The cities shall be theirs to settle in, and the pasturelands shall be for their cattle, for their goods, and for all their beasts.Do you not know that those who serve the set-apart things eat from the temple, and those who sit beside the altar share with the altar?THE THREAD
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.The same Hebrew word for the open land around a town appears here as “suburbs.” This verse states plainly that the Levites’ provision includes both dwelling-cities and the land around them.
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