What Does Genesis 10:30 Mean?
And the place of their sitting was from Mesha, as you come to Sephar, a mountain of the east.
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 their dwelling was from Mesha, as thou goest unto Sephar a mount of the east.THE KEY
The Hebrew word for “dwelling” carries both settling and the place settled, giving habitation a measurable reach.
THE MEANING
A dwelling has a reach: this verse locates a people between named places and toward the eastern highlands. Here, dwelling names both the act of settling and the ground a people inhabit.
THE ROOT
מוֹשָׁבָם
moshavam
GROWS FROM
ישב
To sit, settle, or dwell.
“place of their sitting” in this verse is moshavam. The word מוֹשָׁבָם (moshavam, their dwelling) grows from יָשַׁב (yashav, to sit or dwell). The same root can name both the act of settling and the place where people settle, so the verse’s span from Mesha to Sephar gives dwelling a tangible extent.
ALSO GROWS
yashav: To sit, settle, or dwell.
יָשַׁב
The verb behind “dwelling” shows that habitation begins as the act of settling into a place.
moshav: A dwelling place, settlement, or seat.
מוֹשָׁב
This noun from the same root names the place that results from settling, joining an action to its location.
THE PATTERN
Scripture depicts dwelling as inhabiting an actual place with a reach and bounds.
Abram settled in the land of Canaan, and Lot settled in the cities of the round plain, and pitched his tent as far as Sodom.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
Surely goodness and faithful love pursue me all the days of my life, and I settle in the house of the LORD for the length of days.The Hebrew verb וְשָׁבְתִּי (veshavti, and I will dwell) shares the root ישב (yashav, to settle or dwell) with מוֹשָׁבָם (moshavam, their dwelling). Genesis names the extent of a people’s dwelling; the psalm uses that same root for a person dwelling in the LORD’s house.
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