What Does Joshua 21:14 Mean?
And Jattir with her pastures, and Eshtemoa with her pastures,
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 Jattir with her suburbs, and Eshtemoa with her suburbs,THE KEY
The “suburbs” are open land around each city, so the verse includes the sustaining space around a place as part of its provision.
THE MEANING
This verse names Jattir and Eshtemoa together with their surrounding open land. A place to dwell includes the space that sustains life around it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that a dwelling is only the settlement itself: the surrounding land belongs to its provision.
THE ROOT
מִגְרָשֶׁיהָ
migresheha
GROWS FROM
גרש
garash
To drive out or expel; מִגְרָשׁ (migrash) refers to open land around a town.
“Suburbs” here means the open ground belonging around a settlement, not simply a residential fringe. The root’s sense of driving outward gives the word a spatial edge: the city’s allotted life includes land beyond its center.
ALSO GROWS
garash: To drive out, expel
גָּרַשׁ
This verb gives the root its outward movement, echoing the open space set around the cities.
migrashim: Open lands around towns
מִגְרָשִׁים
This plural form names the surrounding ground that the verse includes with each city.
אֶשְׁתְּמֹעַ
Eshtemoa
GROWS FROM
שמע
shamaʿ
To hear or listen, with the sense of responding to what is heard.
“Eshtemoa” in this verse is Eshtemoa. The place name is commonly linked to the root for hearing. Its name carries the sense of attentive response, while the verse pairs the town with open ground that supports its life.
ALSO GROWS
shamaʿ: To hear, listen, or respond
שָׁמַע
The root connects Eshtemoa’s name with hearing as an active relation, not mere sound.
shemuʿah: A report or news; something heard
שְׁמוּעָה
This branch shows how hearing can become something received and carried onward.
יַתִּיר
Yattir
GROWS FROM
יתר
yathar
To remain or be left over; by extension, to exceed or abound.
“Jattir” in this verse is Yattir. The name is commonly linked to this root and carries a sense of what remains or abounds. Set beside the open land around the city, that name suggests provision with room to spare.
ALSO GROWS
yathar: To remain, be left over, or abound
יָתַר
This verbal root supplies the sense associated with Jattir’s name.
yitron: Advantage, gain, or surplus
יִתְרוֹן
This related form carries the sense of what remains beyond what is strictly needed.
THE PATTERN
A place of service is sustained by provision that extends beyond its central space.
The cities shall be theirs to settle in, and the pasturelands shall be for their cattle, for their goods, and for all their beasts.Of this there shall be for the sanctuary five hundred in length, and five hundred in breadth, square all around. And fifty cubits all around for its pasturelands.Do you not know that those who serve the set-apart things eat from the temple, and those who sit beside the altar share with the altar?THE THREAD
The cities shall be theirs to settle in, and the pasturelands shall be for their cattle, for their goods, and for all their beasts.Numbers names the same open lands and spells out what they support: cattle, goods, and other animals. It makes clear that the space around the city is part of what lets life there continue.
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