What Does Joshua 17:18 Mean?
But the hill shall be yours, for it is a forest, and you shall clear it, and its goings out shall be yours; for you shall drive out the Canaanites, though they have iron chariots, and though they are strong.
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
But the mountain shall be thine; for it is a wood, and thou shalt cut it down: and the outgoings of it shall be thine: for thou shalt drive out the Canaanites, though they have iron chariots, and though they be strong.THE KEY
The Hebrew root behind “drive out” also names inheritance, joining the dispossession of the occupants to the taking possession of the land.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks possession over a mountain that is still forested: its extent belongs with it, yet Canaanites with iron chariots occupy it. They are named as those to be driven out, and their strength is stated plainly; the claim and the force required to take it stand together.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that visible force cancels the stated inheritance: the iron chariots and the occupants’ strength are named, and the mountain is still called yours. The verse leaves the dispossession in view instead of making possession sound unopposed.
THE ROOT
תּוֹרִישׁ
tōrîš
GROWS FROM
ירשׁ
y-r-sh
To take possession or inherit; in a causative form, to dispossess.
“drive out” in this verse is tōrîš. The root ירשׁ names both inheriting and dispossessing: in this verse, taking possession and driving out the occupants belong to the same verbal family. English separates these acts, while Hebrew links the displacement of the occupants with possession of the land.
ALSO GROWS
yārash: Take possession or inherit; in causative forms, dispossess.
יָרַשׁ
This verb family holds together the taking of the land and the removal named in the verse.
yerushah: Inheritance or possession.
יְרֻשָּׁה
This noun makes explicit the inheritance contained in the root behind “drive out.”
תּוֹצְאֹתָיו
totsa'otav
GROWS FROM
יצא
y-ts-ʾ
To go out, emerge, or come forth.
“goings out” in this verse is totsa'otav. “Outgoings” comes from יצא, “to go out,” and names the mountain’s outward reaches or limits. The verse includes those extents in what belongs with the mountain.
ALSO GROWS
yatsa: Go out or come forth.
יָצָא
The same root gives “outgoings” its sense of what extends outward from the mountain.
motsa: An outlet or place of emergence.
מוֹצָא
This branch echoes the mountain’s outward limits and ways out, which the verse includes in its claim.
THE PATTERN
An inheritance is named before its possession is complete, with movement between the two.
See, I have set the land before you. Go in and take hold of the land that the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give to them and to their seed after them.And Caleb hushed the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once, and take hold of it; for we are well able to overcome it.By trust Abraham, called to go out into a place he would receive as an inheritance, heard and responded, and went out, not knowing where he was going.THE THREAD
And he said to him, I am the LORD who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to take hold of it.“Inherit” here comes from the same root, ירשׁ, as “drive out” in Joshua. The shared root reveals that the inheritance in this verse is bound to the dispossession it names.
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