What Does Joshua 15:26 Mean?
Amam, and Shema, and Moladah,
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
Amam, and Shema, and Moladah,THE KEY
The place names carry more than geography: Shema holds hearing, and Moladah holds birth.
THE MEANING
Your life takes shape in particular places. Within these names, Shema carries hearing and response, while Moladah carries birth, so place holds more than a label. Even a list of locations can speak of listening and becoming.
THE ROOT
שְׁמַע
Shemaʿ
GROWS FROM
שמע
sh-m-ʿ
Hear, listen, heed, respond.
English leaves Shema as a place-name, while its Hebrew root also names the act of hearing and responding. The name carries a living action inside a location.
ALSO GROWS
shamaʿ: Hear, listen, heed.
שָׁמַע
This verb shows the action carried in the name: hearing can include response, not just sound.
shemuʿah: Report, news, a thing heard.
שְׁמוּעָה
The same root can name what is heard, linking the act of listening with the message received.
מוֹלָדָה
Moladah
GROWS FROM
ילד
y-l-d
Bear, bring forth, give birth.
Moladah is linked to the Hebrew root for bearing and bringing forth, so the place-name carries a resonance of birth. The list preserves that meaning beneath the familiar sound of a location.
ALSO GROWS
yalad: Bear, give birth, bring forth.
יָלַד
This is the root verb beneath Moladah’s birth-related sense.
yeled: Child.
יֶלֶד
The same root names the one brought forth, making the place-name echo birth and the life that follows.
THE PATTERN
Scripture treats hearing as the opening of response, not as sound alone.
Hear and respond, O Israel. The LORD our God is one LORD.My sheep hear and respond to my voice, and I perceive them, and they follow me.But be makers of the word, and not hearers only, miscounting yourselves.THE THREAD
Hear and respond, O Israel. The LORD our God is one LORD.Shema echoes the Hebrew שָׁמַע (shamaʿ, hear and respond), the root behind “Hear” in this verse. Deuteronomy makes hearing an active encounter with the LORD’s oneness, opening the place-name into a living posture of response.
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