What Does Joshua 18:11 Mean?
And the lot of the tribe of the children of Benjamin came up according to their families, and the border of their lot came out between the children of Judah and the children of Joseph.
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 the lot of the tribe of the children of Benjamin came up according to their families: and the coast of their lot came forth between the children of Judah and the children of Joseph.THE KEY
The boundary does not merely separate Benjamin from other tribes; it locates Benjamin between them.
THE MEANING
Belonging takes shape in a specific place and in relation to its neighbors; Benjamin’s boundary comes forth between Judah and Joseph. Benjamin (בִּנְיָמִין, Binyamin, “son of the right hand”) names the people whose place this is, joining identity to its ground and edges.
THE ROOT
וַיֵּצֵא
vayyetse
GROWS FROM
יצא
yatsa
to go out, come forth
“came out” in this verse is vayyetse. The boundary is described as going out between neighboring territories, as though the line emerges into view. The root also carries the sense of departure and an outlet, connecting a place’s edges with the way out from it.
ALSO GROWS
yetzi’ah: An exit or departure.
יְצִיאָה
It echoes the boundary going out from Benjamin’s allotted portion.
motsa: A way out or place from which something proceeds.
מוֹצָא
It illuminates the boundary as a line proceeding between neighboring inheritances.
וַיַּעַל
vayya’al
GROWS FROM
עלה
alah
to rise, go up, ascend
“came up” in this verse is vayya’al. The lot’s result is spoken of as rising into view. This same root appears in words for ascent and for an offering that goes up, joining the allotment’s appearance to the language of rising.
ALSO GROWS
aliyah: A rising or going up.
עֲלִיָּה
It shares the root’s movement upward with the lot that came up.
olah: A burnt offering, named with the language of ascending.
עֹלָה
It shows another branch of the root’s sense of something going up.
THE PATTERN
A place becomes legible through the boundaries that locate it in relation to other places.
The cords fall to me in sweet places; indeed, my inheritance is beautiful.And he made from one blood every nation of humankind to settle upon all the face of the earth, marking out their fitted seasons and setting the boundary stones of their dwelling.THE THREAD
The lot is thrown into the lap, but all its judgment is from the LORD.The Hebrew גּוֹרָל (goral, lot) is the same word in both verses. Joshua shows the lot coming up as a boundary between neighboring portions; Proverbs connects the outcome of the lot to the LORD’s ordering.
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