What Does Joshua 17:15 Mean?
And Joshua said to them, "If you are a great people, then go up to the forest, and clear for yourself there in the land of the Perizzites and the Rephaim, if the hill of Ephraim is too narrow for you."
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 Joshua answered them, If thou be a great people, then get thee up to the wood country, and cut down for thyself there in the land of the Perizzites and of the giants, if mount Ephraim be too narrow for thee.THE KEY
The verse treats a narrow inheritance as ground still covered: room appears when the forest is cleared.
THE MEANING
Your capacity can be expansive while the ground immediately around you still feels tight. The verse locates possible room under the forest cover: the land becomes available through what is cleared away.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A cramped present does not prove there is no more room; the verse presents covered ground as space not yet opened.
THE ROOT
צַר
tsar
GROWS FROM
צרר
The root צָרַר (tsarar) means to bind, press upon, or constrict.
“too narrow” in this verse is tsar. Hebrew’s צַר (tsar, narrow) also names an adversary, and צָרָה (tsarah, distress) names the pressure that follows. The verse’s spatial limit carries the feel of being pressed in, not only a shortage on a map.
ALSO GROWS
tsarah: distress, adversity
צָרָה
This branch shows that constriction can be an inner trouble as well as a physical limit.
tsar: adversary, foe
צַר
The same word can name what presses against a person as well as what makes a space narrow.
וּבֵרֵאתָ
ūvērēʾtā
GROWS FROM
ברא
The root בָּרָא (bārāʾ) means to clear or cut down in this verb form; in the Qal form it means to create.
“clear for yourself there” in this verse is ūvērēʾtā. Here the action is subtractive: forest is removed so land can be used. The root’s Qal use for creating lets the clearing resonate with making room, while the verb here means clear or cut down.
ALSO GROWS
bārāʾ: create, in the Qal form
בָּרָא
This is the same root in another verb form; the shared root lets clearing the forest echo with opening space.
bērēʾtā: you clear or cut down, in the Piel form
בֵּרֵאתָ
This form names the removal of the woodland cover that opens the land for use.
רַב
rav
GROWS FROM
רבב
The root רָבַב (rābab) means to grow numerous or multiply.
“great” in this verse is rav. The Hebrew places רַב (rav, numerous) directly beside צַר (tsar, narrow): capacity and constriction coexist in one sentence. The wooded frontier is presented as ground to clear, so greatness describes more than status; it also marks scale.
ALSO GROWS
rov: multitude, abundance
רֹב
This noun makes explicit the sense of many contained in the description of a great people.
revavah: myriad, ten thousand
רְבָבָה
This branch carries the root’s sense of multiplication to a much larger scale.
THE PATTERN
A cramped boundary can open into more room when what covers the available space is cleared away.
He brings me out into a broad place; he pulls me loose, because he delights in me.Widen the place of your tent, and let the curtains of your dwellings stretch out. Do not hold back; lengthen your cords, and grip your pegs.O Corinthians, our mouth is open toward you, our heart is widened.THE THREAD
From the narrow place I call out to the LORD, and the LORD answers me in a wide place.Psalm 118:5 says מִן־הַמֵּצַר (min-hammēṣar, “from the narrow place”), sharing the צרר (tsarar, “press or constrict”) root of צַר (tsar, “narrow”) in Joshua. Its movement from distress into a large place gives a direct root-level picture of constriction opening into space.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us