What Does Joshua 14:12 Mean?
Now therefore give me this mountain, of which the LORD spoke in that day; for you heard in that day how the Anakim were there, and that the cities were great and walled. If so be the LORD will be with me, then I shall be able to drive them out, as the LORD said.
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
Now therefore give me this mountain, whereof the LORD spake in that day; for thou heardest in that day how the Anakims were there, and that the cities were great and fenced: if so be the LORD will be with me, then I shall be able to drive them out, as the LORD said.THE KEY
Hebrew uses the same root for “drive them out” and “inherit”: here the promised mountain and the removal of its inhabitants are bound together in possession.
THE MEANING
You encounter a promise that does not erase its resistance: the mountain is inhabited, its cities are fortified, and taking it means driving people out. The verse locates Caleb’s ability in the LORD’s presence while leaving the violence of dispossession in plain view.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that divine presence makes every promised outcome easy or harmless: the verse names fortified cities and the expulsion of the Anakim outright.
THE ROOT
וְהוֹרַשְׁתִּים
wə-hôrāštîm
GROWS FROM
י־ר־שׁ
y-r-sh
To take possession or inherit; in the causative form here, to dispossess.
English gives separate verbs to inheriting land and driving its current inhabitants away; Hebrew traces “drive them out” to ירשׁ (y-r-sh), the root of taking possession or inheriting. The verse does not separate the promised possession from the expulsion it entails.
ALSO GROWS
yāraš: Inherit or take possession; in some contexts, dispossess.
יָרַשׁ
This is the root’s basic verbal form, joining possession and displacement in one word family.
hôrîš: Dispossess or drive out.
הוֹרִישׁ
This causative form is the one used for Caleb’s stated action in the verse.
môrāšāh: Possession or inheritance.
מוֹרָשָׁה
This noun shows the same root describing what is received as an inheritance.
תְּנָה־לִּי
tenāh-lî
GROWS FROM
נ־ת־ן
n-t-n
To give, set, or place.
“give me” in this verse is tenāh-lî. The request uses a verb whose range includes setting or placing as well as giving. Caleb asks for a particular mountain to be placed in his possession, and the next clause names the difficult means by which it will be occupied.
ALSO GROWS
mattānāh: Gift or present.
מַתָּנָה
This noun from the same root carries the sense of what is given.
netīnāh: Giving or donation.
נְתִינָה
This form makes the act of giving itself visible within the root family.
THE PATTERN
A promised portion can remain difficult to possess while the text locates its fulfillment beyond human force alone.
And he said, My face will go with you, and I will give you rest.For they did not take hold of the land by their sword, and their own arm did not deliver them; but your right hand, your arm, and the light of your face, for you took pleasure in them.Who by trust wrestled down kingdoms, worked alignment, reached the promises, fenced the mouths of lions.THE THREAD
And he said to him, I am the LORD who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to take hold of it.“Inherit” in Genesis and “drive them out” in Joshua both draw on י־ר־שׁ (y-r-sh). The shared root holds the promise of possession together with the expulsion of those already living on the land.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
You can read any verse this way in the app, keep it as a card, and send it on.
A Bible app where you send verses from your keyboard and in Messages, and every verse has a Deep Dive.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us