What Does Joshua 13:12 Mean?
All the kingdom of Og in Bashan, who reigned in Ashtaroth and in Edrei, who remained of the remnant of the Rephaim. For these Moses struck, and drove them out.
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
All the kingdom of Og in Bashan, which reigned in Ashtaroth and in Edrei, who remained of the remnant of the giants: for these did Moses smite, and cast them out.THE KEY
Hebrew says Og “remained from the remainder”, a survivor nested inside what survived, so the verse makes the leftovers impossible to miss.
THE MEANING
The verse holds conquest and remainder together: Og is the surviving king from a reduced people, and Moses’ strike and dispossession are stated plainly. His rule has named places, Ashtaroth and Edrei, so the remnant stays concrete inside the account of victory.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a sweeping victory leaves no remainder: Og is identified as the one left from an already reduced people before Moses strikes and dispossesses him.
THE ROOT
נִשְׁאַר
nish'ar
GROWS FROM
שאר
sh-ʾ-r
Remain; be left.
“remained” in this verse is nish'ar. The Hebrew verb says Og himself was left behind. Its root also forms words for a remnant, so survival is built into the language of the verse.
ALSO GROWS
she'erit: Remnant; what remains.
שְׁאֵרִית
This branch names the residue as a continuing part, not something erased by the larger event.
she'ar: The rest; remainder.
שְׁאָר
It echoes the verse’s focus on what is left after others have been struck and driven out.
יֶתֶר
yeter
GROWS FROM
יתר
y-t-r
Be left over; remain beyond what is used or expected.
The word translated “remnant” is from a different root than “remained.” Together, the two roots mark a survivor within a remainder: Og is left from those who were already left.
ALSO GROWS
yitron: Surplus; gain or advantage.
יִתְרוֹן
It carries the sense of what remains beyond the amount already counted.
hotir: Leave over; preserve.
הוֹתִיר
This branch makes the link between a remainder and the act of leaving something behind explicit.
וַיּוֹרִשֵׁם
wayyorishem
GROWS FROM
ירש
y-r-sh
Take possession or inherit; in a causative form, dispossess.
“drove them out” in this verse is wayyorishem. The verb rendered “cast them out” belongs to the root for possessing and inheriting. The same word-family holds both sides of the transfer: the people are dispossessed, and their land passes into another possession.
ALSO GROWS
yarash: Take possession; inherit.
יָרַשׁ
This is the root’s basic sense, which makes the transfer of land part of the verse’s verb.
morashah: Inheritance; possession.
מוֹרָשָׁה
This noun shows how the same root names what is received after dispossession.
horish: Dispossess; drive out.
הוֹרִישׁ
This causative form is the action expressed in the verse.
THE PATTERN
A victory can reduce a people without erasing the remainder, so scripture names the survivor within the record of what was overcome.
For only Og, king of Bashan, remained of the remnant of the Rephaim. Look, his bed was a bed of iron. Is it not in Rabbath of the children of Ammon? Nine forearms was its length, and four its breadth, by the forearm of a man.The remnant will turn back, the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God.So also now, in this present season, there is a remnant left behind, picked out by favor.THE THREAD
For only Og, king of Bashan, remained of the remnant of the Rephaim. Look, his bed was a bed of iron. Is it not in Rabbath of the children of Ammon? Nine forearms was its length, and four its breadth, by the forearm of a man.Deuteronomy repeats the same Hebrew construction, “remained from the remnant of giants,” so Joshua’s double remainder is not an English accident. It adds Og’s iron bedstead, making the scale of this one surviving king concrete.
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