What Does Joshua 15:59 Mean?
And Maarath, and Beth-anoth, and Eltekon; six 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 Maarath, and Beth-anoth, and Eltekon; six cities with their villages:THE KEY
Beth-anoth is commonly read as “house of answers,” making this list a map of places with distinct natures, down to the villages.
THE MEANING
Your belonging takes shape in particular places, not just in an abstract expanse: each named town and its surrounding settlements has a place in the whole. Beth-anoth’s name evokes a dwelling marked by response.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that only prominent places matter gives way here: the villages are counted alongside the cities as part of the same inheritance.
THE ROOT
בֵּית עֲנוֹת
bêt ʿănôt
GROWS FROM
ענה
to answer, respond
“Beth-anoth” in this verse is bêt ʿănôt. The name is commonly understood as “house of answers,” joining a dwelling with the act of response. It turns a place on a map into a named nature, preserved among its neighboring towns and villages.
ALSO GROWS
ʿānâ: to answer, respond
עָנָה
This verb carries the answering sense heard in the second part of Beth-anoth’s name.
maʿăneh: an answer, response
מַעֲנֶה
This noun from the same root makes the name’s “answers” sense concrete.
THE PATTERN
Scripture gives collective belonging a local shape by naming the towns and smaller settlements where people are placed.
And Zelah, Eleph, and Jebusi, which is Jerusalem, Gibeath, and Kirjath; fourteen cities with their enclosures. This is the inheritance of the children of Benjamin according to their families.And the residue of Israel, of the priests, and the Levites, were in all the cities of Judah, every one in his portion.After these things the Lord showed forth seventy others also, and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, where he himself was about to come.THE THREAD
And he called the name of that place Bethel, house of God; but the name of that city was called Luz at the first.Beth-anoth and Bethel share בֵּית (bêt, “house”): Beth-anoth is commonly read as “house of answers,” while בֵּית אֵל (bêt ʾēl, “house of God”) names Bethel. Genesis makes visible how a place-name can carry the nature of a dwelling.
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