What Does Joshua 16:10 Mean?
And they did not drive out the Canaanites who settled in Gezer, but the Canaanites have settled among the Ephraimites to this day, and have served under forced labor.
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 they drave not out the Canaanites that dwelt in Gezer: but the Canaanites dwell among the Ephraimites unto this day, and serve under tribute.THE KEY
The verb for driving out grows from the same root as inheriting or taking possession, binding Ephraim’s inheritance to the dispossession named here.
THE MEANING
The Canaanites remain among Ephraim, and their presence becomes tribute labor. The separation is incomplete, yet power still organizes the relationship: they dwell there while serving under levy.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie this dissolves is that controlling a presence is the same as removing it; tribute leaves that presence in place.
THE ROOT
הוֹרִישׁוּ
hōrîšû
GROWS FROM
יָרַשׁ
yārash
To take possession or inherit; in the causative stem used here, to dispossess or drive out.
“did not drive out” in this verse is hōrîšû. The root holds taking possession and dispossessing within one word family. Here the act of possessing the land is bound to the removal of those already living in it.
ALSO GROWS
yōrēsh: One who inherits or takes possession.
יֹרֵשׁ
It shares the root of “drave out,” linking Ephraim’s possession with the dispossession in this verse.
mōrāšāh: Inheritance or possession.
מוֹרָשָׁה
This noun makes the same root’s inheritance sense visible beside its dispossession sense.
הַיּוֹשֵׁב
hayyōshēv vayyēshev
GROWS FROM
יָשַׁב
yāshav
To sit, settle, remain, or dwell.
“settled” in this verse is hayyōshēv vayyēshev. The root carries the sense of sitting down and remaining in a place. The Canaanites are not a passing presence: the verse repeats this root as it describes them dwelling in Gezer and remaining among Ephraim.
ALSO GROWS
yōshēv: A dweller or inhabitant.
יֹשֵׁב
It names someone settled in a place, as the Canaanite is described in Gezer.
mōshāv: A dwelling or settlement.
מוֹשָׁב
This branch shows the root extending from the act of dwelling to the place where one settles.
לְמַס עֹבֵד
lemās ʿōvēd
GROWS FROM
עָבַד
ʿāvad
To work or serve.
“served” in this verse is lemās ʿōvēd. The verse describes the Canaanites’ status through service under a levy. This root also gives the words for a servant and for work, connecting tribute with labor and subjection.
ALSO GROWS
ʿeved: A servant or bondservant.
עֶבֶד
It shows how the root of service can name the person placed in a subordinate condition.
ʿavōdāh: Work or service.
עֲבֹדָה
It makes the labor within “serve under tribute” explicit.
THE PATTERN
A presence left within the space from which it was meant to be removed remains an active force that reshapes the terms of life there.
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.Therefore I also said, I will not drive them out from your faces. But they shall be thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare to you.THE THREAD
Yet it came to pass, when the children of Israel grew strong, that they set the Canaanites under the load, and did not utterly drive them out.This verse uses the same root, יָרַשׁ (yārash), for driving out, while also describing the Canaanites being put to tribute. It shows the same unresolved arrangement continuing even as Israel grows strong: the Canaanites remain, now as labor tributaries.
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