What Does Joshua 15:63 Mean?
As for the Jebusites who settled in Jerusalem, the children of Judah could not drive them out; but the Jebusites have settled with the children of Judah at Jerusalem to this day.
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
As for the Jebusites the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the children of Judah could not drive them out: but the Jebusites dwell with the children of Judah at Jerusalem unto this day.THE KEY
The verb for taking possession of an inheritance is also the verb for dispossessing its occupants, so Jerusalem appears as an inheritance still held in common.
THE MEANING
Your named inheritance can remain shared with what has not moved; possession and completion are not the same thing. The verse holds that tension plainly: Judah is in Jerusalem while the Jebusites dwell with Judah there.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Naming something as yours does not mean its boundaries are already complete.
THE ROOT
לְהוֹרִישָׁם
lĕhôrîšām
GROWS FROM
י־ר־שׁ
y-r-sh
To inherit or take possession; in the causative form, to dispossess or drive out.
The word translated “drive them out” comes from the same root as “inherit” or “take possession.” The verse holds both sides of possession together: Judah receives an inheritance whose existing occupants remain within it.
ALSO GROWS
yāraš: Inherit or take possession.
יָרַשׁ
This branch names Judah’s claim to the land from the other side of the same root.
hôrîš: Dispossess or drive out.
הוֹרִישׁ
This causative form names the removal Judah cannot complete.
yerushah: Inheritance or possession.
יְרוּשָׁה
The inheritance itself grows from the root that also describes dispossession.
וַיֵּשֶׁב
vayyēšev
GROWS FROM
י־שׁ־ב
y-sh-v
To sit, remain, or dwell.
“settled; have settled” in this verse is vayyēšev. The verse first calls them inhabitants of Jerusalem, יֹשְׁבֵי (yōshĕvē, inhabitants), then says the Jebusites dwell with Judah. The repeated root makes the point through occupancy itself: they remain in the city, living alongside Judah.
ALSO GROWS
yōshēv: An inhabitant, one who dwells.
יֹשֵׁב
This is the word-shape behind the verse’s description of Jerusalem’s inhabitants.
mōshāv: A dwelling place or settlement.
מוֹשָׁב
This branch evokes the shared place where the verse says both groups dwell.
יְרוּשָׁלַיִם
Yerushalayim
GROWS FROM
ש־ל־ם
sh-l-m
Whole, complete, intact; wholeness.
“Jerusalem” in this verse is Yerushalayim. Yerushalayim carries שָׁלוֹם (shalom, wholeness) in its name. The verse places unresolved co-dwelling inside that name: the city of wholeness still holds a boundary Judah cannot complete.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: Wholeness or completeness.
שָׁלוֹם
This branch illuminates the nature carried in Jerusalem’s name.
shalem: Whole or complete.
שָׁלֵם
This branch sharpens the tension between the city’s name and its unfinished possession.
THE PATTERN
A space can be claimed as an inheritance while another presence continues to dwell within it.
But if you will not drive out the settlers of the land from your face, then those you let remain of them shall be thorns in your eyes and goads in your sides, and they shall press you in the land where you settle.And the children of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites who settled in Jerusalem, but the Jebusites have settled with the children of Benjamin in Jerusalem to this day.So I find an instruction, that when I will to do good, evil lies beside me.THE THREAD
And the children of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites who settled in Jerusalem, but the Jebusites have settled with the children of Benjamin in Jerusalem to this day.The same root, יָרַשׁ (yāraš, inherit or take possession), appears in הוֹרִישׁ (hôrîš, dispossess or drive out). Judges repeats the unresolved dwelling in Jerusalem, showing that the shared possession in Joshua is part of a recurring line.
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