What Does Joshua 18:19 Mean?
And the border crossed along to the shoulder of Bethhoglah northward, and its goings out were at the north tongue of the salt sea, at the south edge of Jordan. This was the south border.
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 border passed along to the side of Beth-hoglah northward: and the outgoings of the border were at the north bay of the salt sea at the south end of Jordan: this was the south coast.THE KEY
The Hebrew calls a border’s endpoints its “goings out,” so the boundary is known by where its line emerges.
THE MEANING
This verse traces a territory across named ground: past Beth-hoglah (בֵּית חָגְלָה, Bēt-Ḥoglāh, commonly glossed “house of the partridge”), then to the Salt Sea and the Jordan. Its endpoints are described as “goings out,” places where the line comes forth.
THE ROOT
תּוֹצְאוֹת
totza'ot
GROWS FROM
יצא
To go out, come forth.
“goings out” in this verse is totza'ot. The Hebrew word for the border’s endpoints grows from the verb “to go out.” The English “outgoings” preserves a hint of that movement: the boundary is described through the places where its course comes forth.
ALSO GROWS
yatsa: To go out, come forth.
יָצָא
The verb supplies the movement inside “outgoings”: the line reaches its defined limit by coming out to a place.
motsa: An exit, outlet, or place of going out.
מוֹצָא
This related noun makes the endpoint concrete as an outlet or emergence point, like the places named along this border.
THE PATTERN
A territory becomes legible through the landmarks and endpoints that mark its edge.
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.From the edge of the heavens is his going out, and his circling to their edges; and nothing is hidden from his heat.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
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.Both passages use forms from יצא (yatsa, “to go out”) for a border’s endpoints. Numbers names the larger perimeter, while Joshua locates this stretch at the Salt Sea and Jordan.
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