What Does Joshua 15:44 Mean?
And Keilah, and Achzib, and Mareshah; nine cities with their courtyards.
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 Keilah, and Achzib, and Mareshah; nine cities with their villages:THE KEY
Mareshah carries the root of possession, so the inheritance becomes real as named, countable places.
THE MEANING
Inheritance takes shape in particular cities and the villages around them, gathered into one counted portion. Mareshah’s name echoes possession: what is received can be located, named, and lived in.
THE ROOT
מָרֵשָׁה
Māreshāh
GROWS FROM
י־ר־שׁ
y-r-sh
Possess, occupy, or inherit.
Mareshah is commonly connected with the root יָרַשׁ, the language of taking possession or inheriting. In this list, the name makes inheritance concrete: it is attached to places that can be counted and inhabited.
ALSO GROWS
yarash: To possess, occupy, or inherit.
יָרַשׁ
The root verb names the movement by which land becomes a possession.
morashah: Possession or inheritance.
מוֹרָשָׁה
This noun from the same root makes explicit the connection between Mareshah’s name and an inherited portion.
THE PATTERN
Inheritance takes concrete form as a portion with named places, boundaries, and people within it.
Command the children of Israel, and say to them, When you come into the land of Canaan, this is the land that shall fall to you for a holding, even the land of Canaan with its borders.The cords fall to me in sweet places; indeed, my inheritance is beautiful.And now, brothers, I set you alongside God and the word of his favor, which is able to build you as a house, and to give you a portion among all who have been set apart.THE THREAD
Now Joshua was old and had come into his days, and the LORD said to him, You are old and have come into your days, and there remains yet very much land to be possessed.The name Mareshah is associated with יָרַשׁ (yarash), “possess” or “inherit,” the same root behind “to be possessed.” Joshua 13:1 names land still awaiting possession; this verse gives that possession a countable shape in cities and villages.
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