What Does Joshua 10:17 Mean?
And it was told to Joshua, saying, The five kings are found hidden in a cave at Makkedah.
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 it was told Joshua, saying, The five kings are found hid in a cave at Makkedah.THE KEY
The word for “told” grows from a root of bringing something to the front, so the verse’s first movement is the hidden cave coming into view.
THE MEANING
You can mistake what is out of sight for what is beyond discovery. Here, the kings remain hidden, yet their location is known: concealment has not made them disappear.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Being out of sight does not mean you are gone or beyond reach.
THE ROOT
וַיֻּגַּד
wayyuggad
GROWS FROM
נגד
n-g-d
To be in front or conspicuous; in causative forms, to make known or declare.
“told” in this verse is wayyuggad. This root carries the sense of bringing something before someone, making it stand out. Here, the hiding place becomes present in Joshua’s awareness before the kings are physically brought out.
ALSO GROWS
higgîd: To announce or make something known.
הִגִּיד
The report brings the concealed location into view.
nāgîd: One who is prominent or stands before others.
נָגִיד
The same root connects what is brought to the fore with the person who stands at the fore.
נֶחְבְּאִים
neḥbeʾim
GROWS FROM
חבא
ḥ-b-ʾ
To hide or conceal oneself.
“hid” in this verse is neḥbeʾim. The kings are described as being in a concealed state, with a specific place attached: the cave. The root keeps hiding as an action, not disappearance; the report has already made that hiding place knowable.
ALSO GROWS
ḥābāʾ: To conceal oneself.
חָבָא
The root names concealment as something a person does, rather than a person ceasing to exist.
wayyitḥabbēʾ: He concealed himself.
וַיִּתְחַבֵּא
This form uses the same root for a person hiding himself, echoing the kings’ chosen concealment.
THE PATTERN
Being hidden does not make something absent or unknowable; disclosure can bring it within reach.
He uncovers the depths out of darkness, and brings out to light the deepest darkness.For nothing is hidden that will not be made visible, nor anything concealed that will not be known and come into the light.THE THREAD
And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the breath of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the face of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.Both verses use חבא (ḥ-b-ʾ, to hide) for people who conceal themselves. Genesis makes the limit of that concealment clear: hiding does not make someone absent from the presence that seeks them.
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