What Does Joshua 13:31 Mean?
And half of Gilead, and Ashtaroth, and Edrei, cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan, belonged to the children of Machir the son of Manasseh, even to the one half of the children of Machir 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 half Gilead, and Ashtaroth, and Edrei, cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan, were pertaining unto the children of Machir the son of Manasseh, even to the one half of the children of Machir by their families.THE KEY
The cities are named first within Og’s governance, then as Machir’s family share: rule and inheritance meet in the same ground.
THE MEANING
Your place in a larger whole is concrete and particular, with a location and people attached to it. The verse names these cities within Og’s kingdom and assigns them to Machir’s family, holding the wider realm and the family’s share together.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A defined share is not an absence of belonging: the verse names the cities and the family to whom they pertain even as it marks the allotment as a half.
THE ROOT
מַמְלְכוּת
mamlĕkût
GROWS FROM
מלך
to reign, rule
“kingdom” in this verse is mamlĕkût. מַמְלְכוּת names the cities within Og’s governance, from the same root as king and reign. The verse then locates them within Machir’s family share, setting a ruler’s jurisdiction beside a family’s allotted place.
ALSO GROWS
melekh: king
מֶלֶךְ
It shares the root מלך and names the ruler whose governance defines the cities’ realm.
mālak: to reign, rule
מָלַךְ
It shares the same root and reveals the action behind “kingdom”: exercising rule over a realm.
malkhût: kingship, kingdom
מַלְכוּת
This related noun shares the root מלך and makes the connection between ruling and the realm explicit.
THE PATTERN
A shared inheritance becomes concrete through particular places and portions assigned within a larger whole.
To the many you shall multiply the inheritance, and to the few you shall make it small. Each one's inheritance shall be given according to those that were numbered of him.The LORD is the portion of my share and of my cup; you hold fast my lot.Giving thanks to the Father, who has made us sufficient to have a share in the inheritance of the set-apart ones in the light.THE THREAD
And the LORD said to Samuel, Hear and respond to the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not spurned you, but they have spurned me, that I should not reign over them.The word “kingdom” in Joshua and “reign” here share the Hebrew root מלך, meaning to reign or rule. Joshua names the cities within Og’s governance while assigning them to Machir’s family; this verse makes the act of rule itself explicit.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us