What Does Joshua 15:20 Mean?
This is the holding of the tribe of the children of Judah by 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
This is the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Judah according to their families.THE KEY
The inheritance is one shared belonging, yet its portion becomes particular family by family.
THE MEANING
What you receive as inheritance has shape: it belongs within a larger people and reaches you through particular ties of belonging. The verse holds the shared portion and each family’s distinct place together.
THE ROOT
נַחֲלָה
naḥălāh
GROWS FROM
נחל
N-Ḥ-L
To inherit, take possession, or receive as one’s share.
“holding” in this verse is naḥălāh. English can make inheritance sound like one undivided possession, but the verse holds a shared inheritance and its family-by-family portions together. The root carries both receiving a possession and passing one on as an inheritance.
ALSO GROWS
nāḥal: To inherit or take possession.
נָחַל
The verb shows inheritance as something received and possessed, not merely promised.
hinḥîl: To give as an inheritance or cause someone to inherit.
הִנְחִיל
This branch reveals the other side of the allotment: an inheritance is also something bestowed.
יְהוּדָה
Yehudah
GROWS FROM
ידה
Y-D-H
To praise, give thanks, or acknowledge.
Judah’s name carries the nature of praise and acknowledgment. The inheritance is attached to this named people, so the name’s meaning is present in the verse without suggesting that the portion is earned.
ALSO GROWS
yādâ: To praise, thank, or acknowledge.
יָדָה
This verb is the root behind the name Judah and gives the name its nature.
tôdâ: Thanksgiving or praise.
תּוֹדָה
This related word shows how the root’s acknowledgment takes the form of expressed thanks.
THE PATTERN
Inheritance is received as a portion, and shared belonging can still be apportioned household by household.
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.The LORD is the portion of my share and of my cup; you hold fast my lot.In him we also have been allotted an inheritance, marked out beforehand according to the aim of him who works all things according to the counsel of his own will.THE THREAD
The LORD is the portion of my share and of my cup; you hold fast my lot.Joshua names the inheritance נַחֲלָה (naḥălāh), an allotted possession; Psalm 16:5 uses that same Hebrew noun for the speaker’s inheritance. The shared root opens inheritance as a received portion that can be both a possession and one’s sustaining share.
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