What Does Joshua 19:50 Mean?

According to the mouth of the LORD they gave him the city which he asked, even Timnathserah in mount Ephraim; and he built the city, and settled therein.

Joshua 19:50 · SDV

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.

This verse in the King James

King James wording

King James Version

According to the word of the LORD they gave him the city which he asked, even Timnath-serah in mount Ephraim: and he built the city, and dwelt therein.

THE KEY

The request does not end when it is granted: the asked-for place becomes a built and inhabited life.

THE MEANING

Your request is not only a want held inwardly: what is received can become a real place to inhabit. The verse holds gift and participation together, what is given takes shape through building and dwelling.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It loosens the assumption that a granted answer is complete as an abstraction; here, what is granted becomes a built and inhabited place.

THE ROOT

שָׁאַל

sha’al

GROWS FROM

שאל

Ask, request, inquire.

The English “asked” comes from ⁨שׁאל⁩ (sha’al, ask or request), also present in ⁨שְׁאֵלָה⁩ (she’elah, request) and ⁨שָׁאוּל⁩ (sha’ul, asked-for). Here the request does not remain an idea: it becomes a city he builds and inhabits.

ALSO GROWS

she’elah: Request

שְׁאֵלָה

The request shares the same ⁨שׁאל⁩ root, linking the act of asking with the thing asked for.

sha’ul: Asked-for; also the name Saul

שָׁאוּל

This form from the same root carries the sense of something sought by asking.

וַיֵּשֶׁב

va-yeshev

GROWS FROM

ישב

Sit, remain, dwell.

“settled therein” in this verse is va-yeshev. The root ⁨ישב⁩ (yashav, sit, remain, dwell) holds settling and dwelling in one verb. The endpoint is more than receiving a location: it is remaining there, making the granted place a lived home.

ALSO GROWS

yoshev: One who dwells; an inhabitant

יֹשֵׁב

This form shares the root and describes someone settled in a place.

moshav: Dwelling place; settlement

מוֹשָׁב

This noun from the same root names a place where people settle.

THE PATTERN

What is asked and given takes form as a place that can be built and inhabited.

In Gibeon the LORD showed himself to Solomon in a dream by night, and God said, Ask what I shall give you.

1 Kings 3:5 · SDVThe request and the gift are joined in one invitation, as asking opens toward something received.

A Song of degrees for Solomon. Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders toil in emptiness. Unless the LORD guards the city, the watchman stays awake in emptiness.

Psalm 127:1 · SDVThe verse brings building and dwelling under the same sustaining gift that makes a place livable.

In my Father's house are many places to remain. If it were not so, I would have told you, for I go to make ready a place for you.

John 14:2 · SDVA prepared place becomes a dwelling, echoing the movement from what is given to where one can live.

THE THREAD

Ask of me, and I give you the nations for your inheritance, and the far edges of the earth as what your hands grasp.

Psalm 2:8 · SDV

The Psalm’s “Ask” is ⁨שְׁאַל⁩ (she’al, ask), from the same ⁨שׁאל⁩ (sha’al, ask or request) root as Joshua’s “asked.” In both verses, asking opens toward something concrete that can be received: inheritance in the Psalm, and a city to build and inhabit in Joshua.

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