What Does Joshua 15:4 Mean?
From there it passed toward Azmon, and went out to the streambed of Egypt; and its goings out were at the sea. This shall be your south border.
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
From thence it passed toward Azmon, and went out unto the river of Egypt; and the goings out of that coast were at the sea: this shall be your south coast.THE KEY
The Hebrew names the border’s endpoint with the same root as its movement outward: the line itself “goes out” to the sea.
THE MEANING
The verse gives a southern boundary a traceable course: it passes Azmon, reaches the river of Egypt, and ends at the sea. For you now, a limit becomes legible when its path and endpoint can both be named.
THE ROOT
תֹצְאֹתָיו
totse'otav
GROWS FROM
יצא
yatsa
To go out, emerge, or come forth.
The verb translated “went out” and the noun “goings out” share the root יצא (yatsa), meaning to go out or emerge. The verse describes the boundary through both its movement and the place where that movement comes forth at the sea.
ALSO GROWS
yatsa: To go out or emerge.
יָצָא
This is the verb translated “went out” earlier in the verse, linking the boundary’s movement to its named outlet.
motsa: A going out, outlet, or source.
מוֹצָא
This form names an emergence as a place or point, echoing the verse’s description of where the boundary comes out.
totza'ah: An outcome, exit, or point of departure.
תּוֹצָאָה
This related form keeps attention on where movement issues forth, as the border reaches its endpoint at the sea.
גְּבוּל
gebul
GROWS FROM
גבל
g-b-l
To border, bound, or mark off.
“south border” in this verse is gebul. The word for “border” carries the sense of marking an edge. Paired with the repeated root for going out, the verse presents a boundary as a line traced to where it reaches its limit.
ALSO GROWS
gabal: To border or set a limit.
גָּבַל
This verbal form shows the boundary as an act of marking an edge, matching the verse’s naming of the south coast.
gebulah: Territory or borderland.
גְּבוּלָה
This related form names the bounded region itself, showing how a marked edge defines a place.
THE PATTERN
A place becomes legible when its limits and the course that reaches them are named.
And the border shall turn about from Azmon to the streambed of Egypt, and its goings out shall be at the sea.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.And the city lies four-cornered, and its length is as great as its width. And he measures the city with the reed, twelve thousand stades. Its length and width and height are equal.THE THREAD
And a river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it was split and became four heads.Joshua uses יצא (yatsa), meaning to go out or emerge, for the border’s movement toward its endpoint; Genesis uses the same root for the river going out of Eden. In both verses, a place is described through the course that comes forth from it.
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