What Does Joshua 13:29 Mean?
And Moses gave an inheritance to the half tribe of Manasseh. This was the holding of the half tribe of the children of Manasseh according to their families.
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 Moses gave inheritance unto the half tribe of Manasseh: and this was the possession of the half tribe of the children of Manasseh by their families.THE KEY
The Hebrew verb for “gave” also carries “set” and “place”: what is given becomes a share located among families.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks to your sense of belonging through a concrete shape: a share is given, then named within families. Inheritance appears as received place and relationship, not an abstract claim.
THE ROOT
וַיִּתֵּן
vayyitten
GROWS FROM
נתן
Give, set, place
The Hebrew form for “he gave” comes from נתן, whose range also includes setting or placing. The gift is therefore a placement: the verse names a share set among families, not just an act of generosity.
ALSO GROWS
mattanah: Gift
מַתָּנָה
This noun from the same root shows the given share as something received.
natun: Given, set, placed
נָתוּן
This form carries the placing sense of נתן, illuminating how the gift takes its place among families.
מְנַשֶּׁה
Menasheh
GROWS FROM
נשה
Forget, cause to forget
Manasseh’s name carries the sense “causing to forget,” made explicit in its explanation in Genesis 41:51. Here that name identifies a whole half tribe and its families, so a name tied to forgetting becomes a continuing marker of kinship and a share.
ALSO GROWS
nashah: To forget, cause to forget
נָשָׁה
This is the root behind Manasseh’s name and gives the name its meaning.
nashani: He has made me forget
נַשַּׁנִי
This form appears in the explanation of Manasseh’s name in Genesis 41:51.
מֹשֶׁה
Moshe
GROWS FROM
משה
Draw out, especially from water
Moses’ name carries the sense “drawn out,” as the name’s explanation in Exodus 2:10 makes clear. The verse places the giving of a share under a name that holds the movement of being drawn out.
ALSO GROWS
mashah: To draw out
מָשָׁה
This is the verb behind Moses’ name.
Moshe: Drawn out one
מֹשֶׁה
The name retains the root’s image of being drawn out.
THE PATTERN
A received portion becomes real through its placement among a defined people.
"Unto these the land shall be divided for an inheritance according to the number of names.The LORD is the portion of my share and of my cup; you hold fast my lot.into an inheritance that cannot be ruined, and cannot be stained, and cannot wither, kept in the heavens for you,THE THREAD
And the remnant of Gilead, and all Bashan, the kingdom of Og, I gave to the half tribe of Manasseh. All the measuring cord of Argob, with all Bashan, which was called the land of the Rephaim.Deuteronomy uses the same נתן (n-t-n) verb for giving territory to this same half tribe of Manasseh. The fuller boundary named there lets this brief line read as a particular placing of land among families, not an abstract gift.
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