What Does Joshua 10:19 Mean?
And do not stand still, but pursue your enemies, and strike the ones falling behind; do not give them entry into their cities, for the LORD your God has given them into your hand.
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 stay ye not, but pursue after your enemies, and smite the hindmost of them; suffer them not to enter into their cities: for the LORD your God hath delivered them into your hand.THE KEY
The enemy is called “given” before the pursuit is over: the transfer is complete while containment is not.
THE MEANING
The verse places an active pursuit before you: the enemy is fleeing, the rear is struck, and the route back to the cities is blocked. It names the LORD’s giving as already accomplished while pursuit, blows, and blockade remain in the command.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that retreat means danger is already contained. The LORD’s giving is stated as complete, yet the pursuit and the barrier remain part of the scene.
THE ROOT
נְתָנָם
netanam
GROWS FROM
נתן
give, put, set
“given” in this verse is netanam. The Hebrew behind “hath delivered them” is נְתָנָם (netanam, “he gave them”), from נתן (natan, “to give, put, set”). The wording names a completed transfer while the pursuit is still unfolding: what has been put into the hand is still being acted upon.
ALSO GROWS
natan: to give
נָתַן
This is the basic verb from the same three consonants, נתן, making the verse’s “delivered” a form of giving.
nittan: was given
נִתַּן
This passive form shares the root נתן and brings out the state of having been given over.
THE PATTERN
The LORD’s act of giving is declared while its consequences are still unfolding in the visible scene.
And the LORD said to Joshua, See, I have given into your hand Jericho, and its king, and the mighty men of strength.But the LORD your God will give them to you, and will throw them into a great uproar until they are wiped out.He who did not spare his own Son, but handed him over for us all, how will he not also favor us with all things along with him?THE THREAD
And the LORD said to Joshua, See, I have given into your hand Jericho, and its king, and the mighty men of strength.Joshua 10:19’s נְתָנָם (netanam, “he gave them”) and Joshua 6:2’s נָתַתִּי (natati, “I have given”) share the root נתן (natan, “give, put, set”). In both verses the giving is declared while the visible outcome is still in motion.
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