What Does Joshua 21:11 Mean?
And they gave them the city of Arba the father of Anak, which city is Hebron, in the hill country of Judah, with the pastures thereof round about it.
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 gave them the city of Arba the father of Anak, which city is Hebron, in the hill country of Judah, with the suburbs thereof round about it.THE KEY
Hebron’s name carries the root for joining, so the city given with its surrounding land bears the nature of joinedness.
THE MEANING
You encounter the city both through its lineage, Arba, father of Anak, and through the name Hebron, whose root carries joining. It is given with the open land around it, in Judah’s hill country.
THE ROOT
חֶבְרוֹן
Ḥeḇrôn
GROWS FROM
חבר
ḥ-b-r
To join, bind, or associate.
Hebron carries the nature of joining in its name. The English proper name conceals how the place itself echoes connection as it is given as a dwelling.
ALSO GROWS
ḥaver: Friend or companion
חָבֵר
A companion is someone joined in relationship; this branch brings the city’s name close to shared belonging.
ḥibbur: Connection or joining
חִבּוּר
This branch makes the root’s joining explicit: Hebron’s name holds the idea of connection within the city itself.
וַיִּתְּנוּ
vayyitnu
GROWS FROM
נתן
n-t-n
To give, set, or place.
“gave” in this verse is vayyitnu. The verb can mean both giving and placing. The city is not only handed over; it is set into a community’s place.
ALSO GROWS
mattanah: Gift
מַתָּנָה
A gift is what is given into someone’s keeping; the city is presented as something placed in their care.
nethinim: Given ones; temple servants
נְתִינִים
Their name preserves the sense of being assigned or given to service, echoing the verse’s language of a place set apart for a community.
THE PATTERN
Belonging becomes visible through shared dwelling, shared space, and common life.
Command the children of Israel to give the Levites cities to settle in from the inheritance of their holding, and you shall also give the Levites pasturelands for the cities round about them.A Song of degrees of David. Look, how good and how sweet it is for brothers to settle also together!And all who trusted were together, and had all things in common.THE THREAD
Jerusalem is built as a city bound together.The Hebrew root in Hebron, חבר (ḥ-b-r), also appears in the word rendered “compact together.” The city name and the psalm’s image meet in the same idea: a place held together by joining.
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