What Does Joshua 17:2 Mean?
There was also a cast stone for the rest of the children of Manasseh by their families, for the children of Abiezer, and for the children of Helek, and for the children of Asriel, and for the children of Shechem, and for the children of Hepher, and for the children of Shemida. These were the male children of Manasseh the son of Joseph by their families.
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
There was also a lot for the rest of the children of Manasseh by their families; for the children of Abiezer, and for the children of Helek, and for the children of Asriel, and for the children of Shechem, and for the children of Hepher, and for the children of Shemida: these were the male children of Manasseh the son of Joseph by their families.THE KEY
The line named “causing to forget” is preserved here as a list that names each of its branches.
THE MEANING
The verse holds a family line in view by naming its branches within an inheritance. Even the line whose name carries the sense of “causing to forget” remains present in exact detail.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Being among “the rest” does not mean being erased: each remaining branch is named as part of the allotment.
THE ROOT
מְנַשֶּׁה
Menasheh
GROWS FROM
נשה
n-sh-h
Forget; in this name, cause to forget.
Manasseh carries the sense of “causing to forget,” a name Joseph explains through the forgetting of his toil and his father’s house. Here that name heads a detailed record of family branches, holding forgetting and remembrance together.
ALSO GROWS
nashah: to forget
נָשָׁה
This is the verbal seed behind the name’s meaning.
nəshani: he has made me forget
נְשַׁנִּי
Joseph uses this form when explaining the name Manasseh in Genesis 41:51.
בְּנֵי
b'nei
GROWS FROM
בנה
b-n-h
Build; build up.
The word for “children” belongs to the consonantal family associated with banah, “build.” The verse presents inheritance through named family branches, as a line built and carried across generations.
ALSO GROWS
banah: to build
בָּנָה
It shares the consonants b-n-h with the word for sons, linking family continuation with building.
ben: son
בֵּן
The singular form behind b’nei, the sons or children whose family branches are counted here.
binyan: building, structure
בִּנְיָן
This noun from the same root makes the family-as-built-line connection visible.
THE PATTERN
Inheritance is traced through named belonging, with portions carried across family branches.
Only by the cast stones shall the land be divided. According to the names of the tribes of their fathers they shall inherit.Because the daughters of Manasseh had a holding among his sons, and the rest of Manasseh's sons had the land of Gilead.And if you are of the Anointed One, then you are the seed of Abraham, heirs according to the promise.THE THREAD
And Joseph called the name of the firstborn the Forget-Maker, Manasseh, for God has made me forget all my toil and all my father's house.Genesis explains Manasseh through the Hebrew root for forgetting: God has made Joseph forget his toil and his father’s house. Here that same name heads a list that keeps the family’s branches in memory, setting the name’s meaning against the verse’s act.
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