What Does Joshua 18:21 Mean?
Now the cities of the tribe of the children of Benjamin, according to their families, were Jericho, and Bethhoglah, and the valley of Keziz,
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
Now the cities of the tribe of the children of Benjamin according to their families were Jericho, and Beth-hoglah, and the valley of Keziz,THE KEY
The Hebrew word for “tribe” also means “staff,” picturing Benjamin’s lineage extended into named ground.
THE MEANING
Belonging takes concrete shape here: a people is named as a tribe and located through its families in towns and a valley. Identity, kinship, and ground sit together in one map.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse loosens the idea that belonging is only an inner identity detached from place: here, kinship is named alongside specific towns and a valley.
THE ROOT
מַטֵּה
matteh
GROWS FROM
נטה
natah
Stretch out, extend, incline
English “tribe” sounds like a fixed category, but matteh also means a staff or rod and is linked to natah, “to extend.” The verse’s lineage is connected to an image of extension, made concrete in the families and places named here.
ALSO GROWS
natah: To stretch out, extend, or incline
נָטָה
This verb gives the root’s sense of extension, beneath the word used here for Benjamin’s tribe.
matteh: Staff, rod, or tribe
מַטֵּה
The same word can name both a rod and a people-group, linking the verse’s kinship language with an image of a line extending outward.
THE PATTERN
Belonging becomes visible as named people are placed within specific land and boundaries.
"Unto these the land shall be divided for an inheritance according to the number of names.And the border of the children of Reuben was Jordan, and the border. This was the inheritance of the children of Reuben according to their families, the cities and their villages.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
Speak to the children of Israel, and take from them a staff for each house of their fathers, from all their princes according to the house of their fathers, twelve staffs. Write every man's name upon his staff.The Hebrew word matteh, translated “tribe” in Joshua 18:21, is also translated “rod” here. In Numbers, each rod bears a leader’s name; the shared word makes Benjamin’s town list feel like a lineage extended into places, not just a set of map labels.
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