What Does Joshua 2:24 Mean?
And they said to Joshua, Truly the LORD has given into our hands all the land, for even all the inhabitants of the land melt from our face.
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 they said unto Joshua, Truly the LORD hath delivered into our hands all the land; for even all the inhabitants of the country do faint because of us.THE KEY
The land is spoken of as already set into the hand while its inhabitants are pictured not just losing heart but melting away.
THE MEANING
Here, possession and terror appear together: the land is spoken of as given into one people’s hand, while its inhabitants are losing heart before them. The declaration of a gift does not erase the fear of those living on that land.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that a gift is only real once every obstacle has vanished: the land is called given while its inhabitants are still present and afraid.
THE ROOT
נָמֹגוּ
nāmōgū
GROWS FROM
מוג
m-w-g
To melt or dissolve; by extension, to lose heart or become faint.
“melt” in this verse is nāmōgū. The English faint retains the emotional effect, while the Hebrew adds the physical picture of melting or dissolving. That picture recurs for the inhabitants of Canaan in Exodus 15:15, making fear here feel like solidity giving way.
ALSO GROWS
nāmōgū: They melted away (Joshua 2:9).
נָמֹגוּ
The same word describes the inhabitants’ fear earlier in Rahab’s report, giving that fear the image of melting.
nāmōg: Is dissolved (Isaiah 14:31).
נָמוֹג
Here the same root describes a whole people as dissolved, showing its reach beyond an individual feeling.
נָתַן
nātan
GROWS FROM
נתן
n-t-n
To give, set, or place.
“given into our hands” in this verse is nātan. The verb behind delivered is nātan, whose basic sense is to give, set, or place. The verse portrays the land as placed into a hand; possession is declared as an act of receiving.
ALSO GROWS
mattān: Gift or present.
מַתָּן
The noun keeps the root’s act visible: what is given can be held as a gift.
mattanāh: Gift or granted portion.
מַתָּנָה
This branch likewise names what comes through giving, echoing the land described as given into a hand.
THE PATTERN
Giving is pictured as placement: what is received is already set before the hand.
See, I have set the land before you. Go in and take hold of the land that the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give to them and to their seed after them.The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into his hand.THE THREAD
Then the chiefs of Edom shall be startled; shuddering shall take hold of the rams of Moab; all the dwellers of Canaan shall melt.The closing words use the same root מוג (m-w-g) as do faint here. Exodus says the inhabitants of Canaan melt away; Joshua’s wording lets you hear their fear as dissolution, not just low morale.
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