What Does Joshua 2:7 Mean?
And the men pursued after them on the road to the Jordan, to the crossings. And as soon as those who pursued after them had gone out, they shut the gate.
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 men pursued after them the way to Jordan unto the fords: and as soon as they which pursued after them were gone out, they shut the gate.THE KEY
Pursuit does not equal capture: the gate closes only after the pursuers have crossed out.
THE MEANING
The threat is concrete: men pursue, and the gate closes only once they are gone out. The verse holds the exact interval when their movement away lets those hidden inside remain beyond their reach.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Being pursued means capture is already certain.
THE ROOT
רָדְפוּ
radəfū
GROWS FROM
רדף
רדף (radaph, to pursue or chase).
“pursued after” in this verse is radəfū. The root רדף (radaph, to pursue) names the force of following, but does not make that force hostile by itself. Its object changes its character: the same root can describe goodness and faithful love pursuing someone.
ALSO GROWS
follow: Pursue; KJV renders the same verb as “follow.”
Goodness and faithful love take the pursuer’s role, showing that pursuit can mean care.
pursue peace: Pursue wholeness.
The same verb can name movement toward wholeness, not only a threat chasing someone.
סָגְרוּ
sāgĕrû
GROWS FROM
סגר
סגר (sagar, to shut, close, or enclose).
The root סגר (sagar, to shut) also appears in words for shutting a place and handing someone over. The gate is not background detail: its closure changes what the pursuers can reach.
ALSO GROWS
shut up: Closed or secured.
The same root describes Jericho as shut up, making closure an active condition.
deliver up: Hand someone over into another’s power.
A causative form of the root links closing someone in with delivering them into another hand.
יַרְדֵּן
Yardēn
GROWS FROM
ירד
ירד (yarad, to descend or go down).
Jordan’s name carries the sense “descender,” from ירד (yarad, to descend). The pursuit runs toward the river’s fords, places of crossing, so the scene brings movement to a boundary where crossing and closure decide who remains exposed.
ALSO GROWS
descend: Go down.
The root gives the river’s name a directional sense of downward movement.
come down: Descend from above.
The same root describes coming down onto the mountain, keeping the name’s sense grounded in physical descent.
THE PATTERN
Being pursued does not mean the pursuer controls the outcome.
And the waters turned back and covered the chariots and the horsemen, all the army of the Great House that came after them into the sea; not even one of them remained.Then the disciples took him by night, and lowered him down along the wall in a basket.Pursued, but not left behind; thrown down, but not perishing.THE THREAD
Surely goodness and faithful love pursue me all the days of my life, and I settle in the house of the LORD for the length of days.The root רדף (radaph, pursue) behind “pursued” here also appears in the verb KJV renders “follow” in this psalm. Goodness and faithful love become the pursuers, showing that the object of pursuit turns the same force from threat into care.
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