What Does Joshua 11:2 Mean?
And to the kings that were on the north of the mountains, and in the plains of the parched south of Chinneroth, and in the lowland, and in the borders of Dor toward the sea,
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 to the kings that were on the north of the mountains, and of the plains south of Chinneroth, and in the valley, and in the borders of Dor on the west,THE KEY
The Hebrew word for “north” shares its root with “hide,” so the coalition’s reach begins at a direction whose name echoes concealment.
THE MEANING
Opposition takes a visible shape across mountain country, lowlands, a valley, and the western coast. Even what seems to come from a hidden edge receives a name and a place on the map.
THE ROOT
צָפוֹן
tsāfôn
GROWS FROM
צפן
To hide, conceal, or store away.
The word for north shares the root צפן with words for what is hidden or kept in reserve. The verse still names a real direction, while that shared seed gives the northern edge a quiet echo of concealment beneath the English.
ALSO GROWS
tsāphan: To hide, treasure, or store away.
צָפַן
This verb makes explicit the hiddenness carried in the word for north.
tsāfûn: Hidden or concealed.
צָפוּן
This branch preserves the root’s sense of what is out of sight.
שְׁפֵלָה
shephelah
GROWS FROM
שפל
To be low or brought low.
The Hebrew name for this lowland carries the root for being low. Beside the mountain country, it gives the verse a vertical sweep from elevated ground down into the lowlands.
ALSO GROWS
shāphāl: Low or lowly.
שָׁפָל
It shares the low-ground sense embedded in the place-name.
hishpîl: To lower or bring low.
הִשְׁפִּיל
This verb shows the same root in motion, while the verse uses it to name a kind of terrain.
THE PATTERN
Scripture makes the scope of a gathering legible by naming its reach across directions and terrain.
And the LORD said to Abram, after Lot had parted from him, Lift up now your eyes, and look from the place where you are, northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward.And he sends his messengers with a great trumpet, and they gather his picked-out ones from the four winds, from the edges of the heavens to their edges.THE THREAD
You hide them in the hiding place of your face, from the plots of man; you store them in a booth, from the striving of tongues.The Hebrew word for “north,” צָפוֹן (tsāfôn), shares the root צפן (tsāphan, “hide”) with the word translated “hide” here. Joshua names a direction with that hiddenness in its root; this verse brings the same seed into view as shelter.
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