What Does Joshua 21:2 Mean?
And they spake unto them at Shiloh in the land of Canaan, saying, The LORD commanded by the hand of Moses to give us cities to settle in, with their pastures for our cattle.
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 spake unto them at Shiloh in the land of Canaan, saying, The LORD commanded by the hand of Moses to give us cities to dwell in, with the suburbs thereof for our cattle.THE KEY
The gift is not only a city to inhabit but open land around it that sustains the life within.
THE MEANING
At Shiloh (שִׁלֹה, Shiloh, often associated with rest), the request holds dwelling and the land around it together: the cattle have room too. What sustains life is included in what is given, not treated as excess.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A roof is enough, and the space needed to sustain life is extra.
THE ROOT
מִגְרָשִׁים
migrashim
GROWS FROM
גרש
Drive out, send away; the related noun migrash refers to open ground around a city.
“Suburbs” can sound like an extension of the town, but migrash names the open tract around it. Here that outward space is for cattle, so the provision reaches beyond the city walls to include what sustains life.
ALSO GROWS
migrash: Open ground around a town
מִגְרָשׁ
The singular names the same surrounding land that the verse allocates for cattle.
gerush: Expulsion, being driven out
גֵּרוּשׁ
This related form carries the root’s sense of movement outward, echoing the location of the open land beyond the city.
לָתֵת
latet
GROWS FROM
נתן
Give, set, place.
“give” in this verse is latet. The request is for cities to be given, but natan also carries the sense of setting or placing. Provision here gives the people a place within which to dwell and places the surrounding land at their disposal.
ALSO GROWS
natan: Give, set, place
נָתַן
The verse uses the giving of cities as a concrete act of placing people in a home.
mattanah: Gift
מַתָּנָה
This related word shows the connection between giving and what is received as a gift.
לָשֶׁבֶת
lashevet
GROWS FROM
ישב
Sit, remain, dwell.
“settle in” in this verse is lashevet. The word for dwelling grows from the language of sitting and remaining: a home is a place where someone can settle. Paired with the open land around it, dwelling includes room for the life that depends on that place.
ALSO GROWS
yashav: Sit, dwell, remain
יָשַׁב
The verb makes the city a place where people can settle, not simply pass through.
moshav: Dwelling, settlement
מוֹשָׁב
This related noun makes visible the settled place implied by the request for cities to dwell in.
THE PATTERN
Provision gives both a place to dwell and the surrounding means to sustain 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.There he settles the hungry, so that they set firm a city to settle in.and set them down at the feet of the sent ones, and it was given out to each as anyone had need.THE THREAD
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.The same Hebrew words for dwelling and surrounding open land appear in both verses. Their pairing shows that a place to live and room for what sustains life belong to one provision.
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