What Does Joshua 13:18 Mean?
And Jahaza, and Kedemoth, and Mephaath.
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 Jahazah, and Kedemoth, and Mephaath,THE KEY
Belonging becomes tangible through named places, and one name carries both a direction and the sense of what came before.
THE MEANING
These names make belonging concrete: what is yours has a place, and the place has a name. Kedemoth carries a root that also means what is before or east, so a location can hold both direction and depth of time.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that belonging is only a vague promise dissolves here: the verse gives it named places.
THE ROOT
קְדֵמוֹת
Qedemoth
GROWS FROM
קדם
q-d-m
Come before, be in front; by extension, east or ancient.
Kedemoth is linked with קדם, the root of coming before or being in front. קֶדֶם can mean the east, the direction of the front, as well as ancient time, so the name gives this place both an orientation and a depth of time.
ALSO GROWS
qedem: East, front, or ancient time.
קֶדֶם
This branch shows that Kedemoth’s name can hold both a direction and the sense of what came before.
qadam: Come before or precede.
קָדַם
The verb reveals the root’s underlying motion: what is in front is what comes before.
qedmah: Eastward, toward the front.
קֵדְמָה
This directional form connects the name to places oriented toward the east.
THE PATTERN
An inheritance becomes tangible when it is located, measured, or named.
On that day the LORD cut a covenant with Abram, saying, To your seed I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates.The cords fall to me in sweet places; indeed, my inheritance is beautiful.By trust Abraham, called to go out into a place he would receive as an inheritance, heard and responded, and went out, not knowing where he was going.THE THREAD
And the LORD God planted a garden eastward, in Eden, and there he set Adam, whom he had shaped.Kedemoth echoes קדם, the root behind “eastward” here. The same root ties place to what is in front or what came before, revealing how a place name can carry more than a label.
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