What Does Joshua 16:7 Mean?
And it went down from Janohah to Ataroth, and to Naarath, and came to Jericho, and went out at Jordan.
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 it went down from Janohah to Ataroth, and to Naarath, and came to Jericho, and went out at Jordan.THE KEY
The boundary descends toward the Jordan, whose name carries the same root, so even its endpoint echoes the motion that draws the line.
THE MEANING
This verse makes the border visible as a moving line: it descends from Janohah, passes named places, reaches Jericho, and goes out at the Jordan. The final landmark echoes the descent that shapes the route.
THE ROOT
וְיָרַד
wə-yārad
GROWS FROM
ירד
y-r-d
To descend or go down.
“went down” in this verse is wə-yārad. The verb for the boundary’s descent and the name Jordan share this root. English presents one as an action and the other as a place name, while the Hebrew lets the endpoint echo the route’s movement.
ALSO GROWS
Yardēn: Jordan; traditionally understood as “the descender.”
יַרְדֵּן
The river’s name carries the same descent associated with the boundary’s movement toward it.
hōrīd: Bring down; cause to descend.
הוֹרִיד
This related form shows the root can name both going downward and causing something to move down.
THE PATTERN
Scripture makes the shape of land visible by naming its edges and landmarks.
On that day the LORD cut a covenant with Abram, saying, To your seed I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates.And the border shall go down to Jordan, and its goings out shall be at the salt sea. This shall be your land with its borders round about.And the sunrise edge you shall measure, from between Hauran and between Damascus, and between Gilead and between the land of Israel, shall be Jordan, from your border to the front sea. This is the sunrise edge.THE THREAD
And the border crossed over from there toward Luz, to the shoulder of Luz, which is Bethel, southward. And the border went down to Atroth-adar, near the hill that lies on the south side of the lower Bethhoron.Both verses use the same root for the boundary’s descent. Here the route moves toward the Jordan, whose name echoes that descent; Joshua 18:13 uses the same verb to mark another turn in the line.
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