What Does Joshua 21:10 Mean?
Which were for the children of Aaron, being of the families of the Kohathites, of the children of Levi, for theirs was the first lot.
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
Which the children of Aaron, being of the families of the Kohathites, who were of the children of Levi, had: for theirs was the first lot.THE KEY
The word “first” carries the root image of “head,” placing this family at the head of the allotment.
THE MEANING
The verse holds identity and portion together: Aaron’s descendants are named within the Kohathites and the children of Levi, and the first lot belongs to them. You meet a share here as something located within a line of belonging and an order of distribution.
THE ROOT
הָרִאשׁוֹן
ha-rishon
GROWS FROM
רֹאשׁ
r-ʾ-sh
Head, top, or chief; the root image behind what is first or foremost.
Rishon, “first,” comes from rosh, “head”; reshith, “beginning” or “first portion,” carries the same root. The word lets sequence and position at the head sound together: the lot is first in order, with the root image of what stands at the head beneath it.
ALSO GROWS
rosh: Head, top, chief
רֹאשׁ
The head is what stands at the top or foremost, bringing the root image of “first” into view.
reshit: Beginning, first portion
רֵאשִׁית
This branch joins what comes first with the beginning or foremost part, echoing the first lot in this verse.
THE PATTERN
A lot marks a share within a community, and its outcome rests within the LORD’s ordering.
Only by the cast stones shall the land be divided. According to the names of the tribes of their fathers they shall inherit.The lot is thrown into the lap, but all its judgment is from the LORD.And they cast their lots, and the lot fell upon Matthias, and he was counted with the eleven sent ones.THE THREAD
The stone the builders push away becomes the head of the corner.Joshua’s “first” (הָרִאשׁוֹן, ha-rishon: first) grows from רֹאשׁ (rosh: head), the same word in the “head stone” (רֹאשׁ פִּנָּה, rosh pinnah: head of the corner). The shared root links first place with what stands at the head of the corner.
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