What Does Deuteronomy 31:7 Mean?
Moses called to Joshua and said to him before the eyes of all Israel, Hold fast and be firm. For you will bring this people into the land the LORD swore to their fathers to give them, and you will set them down in 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
And Moses called unto Joshua, and said unto him in the sight of all Israel, Be strong and of a good courage: for thou must go with this people unto the land which the LORD hath sworn unto their fathers to give them; and thou shalt cause them to inherit it.THE KEY
Moses (מֹשֶׁה, Mosheh, “drawn out”) entrusts the charge to Joshua (יְהוֹשֻׁעַ, Yehoshua, “YHWH delivers”): courage is the steadiness that carries a whole people into their inheritance.
THE MEANING
The verse meets you at the threshold of a responsibility larger than your own arrival: strength and courage take shape as helping others enter their share. The promise is already spoken, yet its becoming lived inheritance still passes through your part in carrying others forward.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that courage is measured by standing alone; here courage is bound to whether others can receive their share.
THE ROOT
תַּנְחִילֶנָּה
tanḥilenāh
GROWS FROM
נחל
n-ḥ-l
To inherit or possess; in a causative form, to grant a share as an inheritance.
“set them down in it as their portion” in this verse is tanḥilenāh. The causative form gives Joshua a role in bringing the people into possession. Yet the root keeps the receiving with the people, so leadership serves an inheritance already promised rather than inventing one.
ALSO GROWS
naḥalah: An inherited share or possession.
נַחֲלָה
This noun names what the people receive: their own share of the promised land.
nāḥal: To receive or take possession as an inheritance.
נָחַל
The shared root joins Joshua’s role in bringing the gift to the people’s act of receiving it.
יְהוֹשֻׁעַ
Yehoshua
GROWS FROM
ישע
y-š-ʿ
To deliver, bringing a person out of constriction toward spaciousness; the name joins this root with the divine name, YHWH.
“Joshua” in this verse is Yehoshua. Yehoshua carries the nature of deliverance in his name: YHWH delivers. Beside the charge to bring the people into their inheritance, the name frames deliverance as a passage shared by the whole people.
ALSO GROWS
yeshuah: Deliverance or rescue.
יְשׁוּעָה
The noun makes visible the deliverance carried in Joshua’s name and commission.
moshia: One who delivers.
מוֹשִׁיעַ
This form shows the active branch of the same root: deliverance reaches people through one who leads them out.
אֱמָץ
ʾĕmāṣ
GROWS FROM
אמץ
ʾ-m-ṣ
To be firm or strong; to strengthen.
“be firm” in this verse is ʾĕmāṣ. This root names firmness rather than a resource added from outside. Paired with “be strong,” courage becomes steadiness for an assigned passage, tethered to what others receive.
ALSO GROWS
ʾōmeṣ: Courage, firmness, or strength.
אֹמֶץ
The noun gives the quality named in the charge a shape of inner firmness.
ʾimmēṣ: To strengthen or make firm.
אִמֵּץ
This causative form links courage with strengthening another, echoing a task whose outcome belongs to the people.
THE PATTERN
A promise becomes a people’s inheritance through courage used to carry others into their share.
And he charged Joshua the son of Nun, and said, Hold fast and be firm, for you will bring the children of Israel into the land which I swore to them, and I will be with you.He drove out the nations before them, and let an inheritance fall to them by the measuring cord, and settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.And now, brothers, I set you alongside God and the word of his favor, which is able to build you as a house, and to give you a portion among all who have been set apart.THE THREAD
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.Joshua 1:6 repeats the same command to be strong and courageous, then ties it directly to dividing the land as an inheritance. The repetition makes the purpose plain: courage is joined to the work of bringing a people into their promised share.
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