What Does Joshua 15:28 Mean?
And Hazarshual, and Beersheba, and Biziothiah,
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 Hazar-shual, and Beer-sheba, and Bizjothjah,THE KEY
In Beer-sheba, “seven” and “swear an oath” share the same Hebrew root, so this bare list hides an oath inside a place-name.
THE MEANING
You meet three place-names in a row: Hazar-shual, often understood as “fox settlement”; Beer-sheba, “well of seven,” with an oath echo; and Bizjothjah, commonly read as “contempt of Yah.” The verse gives each name without a gloss, compressing the landscape into an animal, a number joined to an oath, and a sharp phrase.
THE ROOT
בְּאֵר שֶׁבַע
Beʾer Shevaʿ
GROWS FROM
שבע
š-b-ʿ
The same three-consonant root carries “seven” and, in a related verbal form, “swear an oath.”
“Beer-sheba” in this verse is Beʾer Shevaʿ. The name means “well of seven” and carries an oath association because the verb “swore” in Genesis 21:31 uses the same three consonants. The place-name holds number, well, and oath in one compressed phrase.
ALSO GROWS
shevaʿ: Seven
שֶׁבַע
This is the second element in Beer-sheba, keeping the number inside the name.
nishbeʿu: They swore an oath
נִשְׁבְּעוּ
Genesis 21:31 uses this form beside the name Beer-sheba, making the oath association explicit.
חֲצַר שׁוּעָל
Chatser Shual
GROWS FROM
חצר
ḥ-ṣ-r
An enclosure or courtyard; by extension, a settlement or village.
Hazar-shual is often understood as “settlement of the fox.” The second element, שׁוּעָל (shual), means “fox,” joining an inhabited place to the animal named in its name.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāṣēr: Courtyard, enclosure
חָצֵר
This is the enclosure sense carried by the first element of Hazar-shual.
ḥaṣērîm: Settlements, villages
חֲצֵרִים
This plural form shows the same word-family used for settled places, supporting the village sense of the name.
בִּזְיוֹת יָהּ
Bizyot Yah
GROWS FROM
בזה
b-z-h
To despise or treat as contemptible.
Bizjothjah is commonly interpreted as “contempt of Yah”: its first element comes from the root for despising, while יָהּ (Yah) is a shortened divine name. Its pointed meaning is carried inside a proper name that the verse leaves unexplained.
ALSO GROWS
bāzāh: To despise, treat as contemptible
בָּזָה
This verb gives the basic action behind the name’s contempt sense.
bizzāyôn: Contempt, disgrace
בִּזָּיוֹן
This noun shows how the same root expresses contempt as a condition or judgment.
THE PATTERN
Scripture’s names can carry a place’s feature, an event, or a nature within them.
Therefore he called that place the well of the swearing, Beersheba, because there the two of them swore.And Moses built an altar and called its name Jehovahnissi, the LORD my lifted banner.Look, the virgin will carry in her womb, and will bring forth a son, and they will call his name Emmanuel, God with us.THE THREAD
Therefore he called that place the well of the swearing, Beersheba, because there the two of them swore.Genesis 21:31 makes the oath audible inside the name Beer-sheba, which Joshua 15:28 gives without explanation. The shared root of “seven” and “swore” turns the place-name into a compressed link between number and oath.
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