What Does Deuteronomy 1:38 Mean?
But Joshua the son of Nun, who stands before you, he shall enter there; strengthen him, for he shall cause Israel to take it as their portion.
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
But Joshua the son of Nun, which standeth before thee, he shall go in thither: encourage him: for he shall cause Israel to inherit it.THE KEY
Joshua’s name means “YHWH delivers,” and the verse shows that deliverance carrying a whole people into their inheritance.
THE MEANING
A promise can outlast the person who first carries it: one stands before you, another goes in, and an entire people receives the inheritance through him. Joshua’s name carries the nature of deliverance, while the command to strengthen him prepares him to carry that promise forward.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The promise depends on its first bearer personally completing it. This verse shows the inheritance continuing through another, strengthened to carry it onward.
THE ROOT
יְהוֹשֻׁעַ
Yehoshua
GROWS FROM
ישע
Deliver; bring out to safety.
Joshua’s name carries the root of deliverance: the name means “YHWH delivers.” The verse joins that name to a concrete movement: Joshua goes in, and Israel receives its inheritance through him.
ALSO GROWS
yasha: Deliver, bring out to safety.
יָשַׁע
This verb reveals the deliverance carried in Joshua’s name.
yeshuah: Deliverance, salvation.
יְשׁוּעָה
The noun names the same root as a state or act of deliverance, linking Joshua’s name to the movement of a people into what is promised.
חַזֵּק
Chazzeq
GROWS FROM
חזק
Be firm or strong; make firm or strengthen.
“strengthen him” in this verse is Chazzeq. The command is to make Joshua firm for what lies ahead. The root holds both strength and the act of strengthening, so encouragement here is steadiness given for the work of carrying the promise.
ALSO GROWS
chazaq: Become strong, grow firm, prevail.
חָזַק
This branch shows the firmness that the command is meant to establish in Joshua.
chizzeq: Strengthened, made firm.
חִזֵּק
This causative form brings out the command’s force: another person is to supply Joshua with steadiness.
יַנְחִילֶנָּה
Yanchilenna
GROWS FROM
נחל
Inherit or receive an allotted possession; cause someone to inherit.
“take it as their portion” in this verse is Yanchilenna. The verb does not merely say that Joshua receives the land: it says he causes Israel to inherit it. The root shifts the focus from one person’s possession to a people receiving what has been allotted to them.
ALSO GROWS
nachalah: Inheritance, allotted possession.
נַחֲלָה
This noun names what Israel receives through Joshua.
hinchil: Cause to inherit; hand down as an inheritance.
הִנְחִיל
This causative form makes Joshua the one through whom the people receive their inheritance.
THE PATTERN
A promise can pass beyond its first bearer and be entrusted onward so others can receive it.
Hold fast and be firm, for you will place this people in the land as their portion, the land that I swore to their fathers to give them.And these things you heard from me among many witnesses, place beside steady people who will be able to teach others also.And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and co-heirs with the Anointed One; if indeed we suffer together with him, so that we may also be clothed in weight with him.THE THREAD
Look, God is my deliverance. I will lean my full weight and not tremble, for the LORD JEHOVAH is my strength and my song, and he has become my deliverance.Joshua’s name carries the same root that appears here as “salvation”: deliverance. That root connection lets the name illuminate the handoff, the people’s movement into inheritance comes through one whose name carries the nature of deliverance.
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