What Does Joshua 15:11 Mean?
And the border went out to the shoulder of Ekron northward; and the border was stretched to Shicron, and passed along to mount Baalah, and went out to Jabneel; and its goings out were at the sea.
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 the border went out unto the side of Ekron northward: and the border was drawn to Shicron, and passed along to mount Baalah, and went out unto Jabneel; and the goings out of the border were at the sea.THE KEY
The repeated “goings out” make the border a route you can trace, ending where it meets the sea.
THE MEANING
This verse makes a boundary concrete through its course: it leaves one landmark, passes through others, and reaches the sea. Its extent becomes visible through named turns and an endpoint.
THE ROOT
גְּבוּל
gevul
GROWS FROM
גבל
To mark off, bound, or set a limit.
The Hebrew word can mean both a boundary and the territory defined by it. The border gives the land a recognizable shape as it is traced from landmark to landmark.
ALSO GROWS
gabal: To mark off or set a boundary.
גָּבַל
The noun in the verse carries the sense of an extent being defined.
gevul: Boundary; bounded territory.
גְּבוּל
The border is both the line being traced and the territory given shape by it.
וַיֵּצֵא
vayetze
GROWS FROM
יצא
To go out, come forth, or emerge.
“went out / goings out” in this verse is vayetze. The verse uses the root for both the border’s movement toward landmarks and its final points at the sea. The edge is revealed as a sequence of outward movements, not merely a static line.
ALSO GROWS
yatsa: To go out or come forth.
יָצָא
The border repeatedly goes out toward the named places.
totsa'ot: Goings out; endpoints or outlets.
תּוֹצָאוֹת
This form names where the border’s course finally reaches the sea.
motsa: Going forth; origin or point of departure.
מוֹצָא
The related word keeps the sense of a place from which something comes forth, echoing the verse’s traced course.
THE PATTERN
A boundary becomes knowable through its course, its landmarks, and the places where it ends.
And the border shall go down to Jordan, and its goings out shall be at the salt sea. This shall be your land with its borders round about.You station all the borders of the earth; you shape summer and winter.And he made from one blood every nation of humankind to settle upon all the face of the earth, marking out their fitted seasons and setting the boundary stones of their dwelling.THE THREAD
You station all the borders of the earth; you shape summer and winter.גְּבוּלוֹת (gevulot, borders) is the plural of גְּבוּל (gevul, boundary), the word used for the border in Joshua. The map of one territory opens into a larger image: boundaries shape the world itself.
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