What Does Joshua 20:7 Mean?
And they set apart Kedesh, the set-apart place, in Galilee, in mount Naphtali, and Shechem in mount Ephraim, and Kirjatharba, which is Hebron, in the mountain of Judah.
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 appointed Kedesh in Galilee in mount Naphtali, and Shechem in mount Ephraim, and Kirjath-arba, which is Hebron, in the mountain of Judah.THE KEY
The Hebrew names picture refuge as set-apart space, a shoulder that bears weight, and a joining that holds connection.
THE MEANING
Refuge appears as something concrete and findable, spread across the land. The city names deepen its shape as a set-apart place, a shoulder that bears weight, and a joining that holds people together.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The names are not empty labels: their roots make refuge read as set-apart space, burden-bearing, and connection.
THE ROOT
קֶדֶשׁ
qedesh
GROWS FROM
קדש
q-d-sh
Set apart, make distinct for a purpose.
“Kedesh, the set-apart place” in this verse is qedesh. Kedesh carries the root of what is set apart and of the sanctuary. As one of the refuge locations, its name frames refuge as a designated space.
ALSO GROWS
qadosh: Set apart; sacred.
קָדוֹשׁ
This branch makes the name’s sense of a distinct, protected place audible.
miqdash: Sanctuary; a set-apart place.
מִקְדָּשׁ
The sanctuary branch links Kedesh’s name to a space designated for shelter and encounter.
שְׁכֶם
shekhem
GROWS FROM
שכם
sh-k-m
Shoulder; the related verbal form means to rise early.
Shechem’s root is literally shoulder, a bodily place for carrying weight. The refuge name gives shelter a load-bearing image that English renders only as a place name.
ALSO GROWS
shekhem: Shoulder.
שְׁכֶם
This is the direct bodily image carried by the city’s name: a place associated with bearing weight.
hishkim: Rise early; get up early.
הִשְׁכִּים
The same consonants appear in the verb for rising early, extending the shoulder image into movement and readiness.
חֶבְרוֹן
ḥevron
GROWS FROM
חבר
ḥ-b-r
Join, bind together, associate.
Hebron carries the root of joining and association. Its name gives refuge a social dimension: shelter includes connection and belonging.
ALSO GROWS
ḥavar: Join; bind together.
חָבַר
This verb makes the joining inside Hebron’s name explicit.
ḥever: Company; association.
חֶבֶר
This branch brings companionship and connection into the name of a refuge place.
THE PATTERN
Refuge becomes real when it is placed within reach and a route to it is made clear.
You shall give three cities on this side of the Jordan, and three cities you shall give in the land of Canaan, which shall be cities of escape.You shall make a road firm for yourself, and divide into three parts the border of your land, which the LORD your God causes you to take as your portion, so that every slayer may flee there.So that through two unshifting deeds, in which it is without power for God to lie, we might have a strong comfort, we who have fled for refuge to grip the hope lying before us.THE THREAD
May he send you help from the set-apart place, and prop you up out of Zion.The name Kedesh (קֶדֶשׁ, qedesh: “set apart”) shares its root, קדש (q-d-sh: “set apart”), with מִקֹּדֶשׁ (miqqodesh: “from the sanctuary”) in this verse. The link lets the refuge city’s name echo the sanctuary as a set-apart place from which help and strength come.
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