What Does Joshua 15:6 Mean?
And the border climbed to Bethhogla, and passed by the north of Betharabah; and the border climbed to the stone of Bohan the son of Reuben,
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 the border went up to Beth-hogla, and passed along by the north of Beth-arabah; and the border went up to the stone of Bohan the son of Reuben:THE KEY
This border is described as a crossing through named places, anchored by a stone, not merely as an invisible line.
THE MEANING
You can trace the boundary as it passes north of Beth-arabah and rises to Bohan’s stone. Its course becomes legible through direction, movement, and a named landmark.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A boundary is only an abstract line; here, it takes a course through places and is anchored to a landmark.
THE ROOT
עָבַר
ʿāvar
GROWS FROM
עבר
To cross, pass over, or go through.
“passed along” in this verse is ʿāvar. This verb shares its root with עֵבֶר, “the beyond” or “the far side,” and מַעֲבָר, “a crossing” or “passage.” The border is made legible through movement across the landscape, with the stone marking a point along its course.
ALSO GROWS
ʿēver: The beyond; the far side or region across.
עֵבֶר
The border’s passage gives the landscape a far side: crossing makes one side distinct from the other.
maʿavār: A crossing or passage.
מַעֲבָר
Like a passage, this boundary is traced by where it goes and the landmarks along its way.
THE PATTERN
A boundary becomes legible through the limits and markers that locate it.
You shall not move your neighbor's boundary, which the former ones marked out in your holding, which you shall take as your share in the land the LORD your God gives you to take hold of.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.Rise, walk through the land in its length and in its breadth, for I will give it to you.THE THREAD
And Abram crossed through the land to the place of Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. The Canaanite was then in the land.“Passed” in Genesis and “passed along” here come from the Hebrew root עבר, to cross or go through. One traces a person’s movement across the land; the other traces a boundary’s course through it.
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