What Does Deuteronomy 3:13 Mean?
And the remnant of Gilead, and all Bashan, the kingdom of Og, I gave to the half tribe of Manasseh. All the measuring cord of Argob, with all Bashan, which was called the land of the Rephaim.
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 the rest of Gilead, and all Bashan, being the kingdom of Og, gave I unto the half tribe of Manasseh; all the region of Argob, with all Bashan, which was called the land of giants.THE KEY
What English calls “the rest” is still placed as an inheritance, even where the name of the giants remains.
THE MEANING
The remainder of the land still enters the inheritance; no part is outside the distribution. Even a place known by its formidable name becomes ground received by Manasseh, so that name does not exhaust what the place can become.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that a place bearing a frightening name cannot become a place of belonging gives way here.
THE ROOT
נָתַן
nathan
GROWS FROM
נתן
To give, set, or place.
“gave” in this verse is nathan. Nathan carries both giving and placing. The land appears as an allotted place received as inheritance.
ALSO GROWS
mattanah: Gift.
מַתָּנָה
This branch makes the act of giving land resonate with receiving a gift.
nethinim: Those given or assigned to service.
נְתִינִים
The word preserves the root’s sense of people or things being placed into an assigned role.
יֶתֶר
yether
GROWS FROM
יתר
To remain, be left over, or exceed.
“remnant” in this verse is yether. The phrase begins with what remains after other portions are assigned. The root also carries the sense of surplus, so the remainder still stands as a real portion within the inheritance.
ALSO GROWS
yathar: To remain or be left over.
יָתַר
This verb names the state of the land described as “the rest.”
yitron: Surplus, gain, or what remains beyond the basic amount.
יִתְרוֹן
This branch echoes the idea that what remains still has value and a place in the whole.
מְנַשֶּׁה
Menasheh
GROWS FROM
נשה
To forget, or to cause to forget.
Manasseh’s name comes from the causative form of “forget”: “God hath made me forget all my toil” (Genesis 41:51). Beside this allotment, the name carries a resonance of release from what has weighed on a family.
ALSO GROWS
nashah: To forget.
נָשָׁה
This verb is the seed behind the name’s association with forgetting.
nashani: He has made me forget.
נַשַּׁנִי
This form in Genesis 41:51 connects the name Manasseh with forgetting toil.
THE PATTERN
A bounded portion becomes an inheritance when it is received as a gift.
And you shall divide the land by lot for an inheritance among your families; to the many you shall multiply its inheritance, and to the few you shall lessen its inheritance. Wherever a man's lot falls, there shall be his inheritance. According to the tribes of your fathers you shall inherit.The LORD is the portion of my share and of my cup; you hold fast my lot.And he made from one blood every nation of humankind to settle upon all the face of the earth, marking out their fitted seasons and setting the boundary stones of their dwelling.THE THREAD
And Joseph called the name of the firstborn the Forget-Maker, Manasseh, for God has made me forget all my toil and all my father's house.The name Manasseh carries the root of forgetting, and Genesis gives the name’s own explanation. Its appearance here ties an allotted place to a name formed around what has receded from view.
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