What Does Joshua 21:20 Mean?
And the families of the children of Kohath, the Levites, even the residue of the children of Kohath, had the cities of their lot out of the tribe of Ephraim.
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 the families of the children of Kohath, the Levites which remained of the children of Kohath, even they had the cities of their lot out of the tribe of Ephraim.THE KEY
The Hebrew for the Kohathites who “remained” shares its root with “remnant,” and these remaining families still receive a place within Ephraim’s allotment.
THE MEANING
The families still remaining among Kohath receive cities within Ephraim’s share. Their place is concrete and shared: they dwell within another tribe’s allotment. What remains is still counted within the whole.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
What remains after division has no place in the whole.
THE ROOT
הַנִּשְׁאָרִים
hannish'arim
GROWS FROM
שאר
sha'ar
To remain, be left, or survive.
The word rendered “remained” belongs to the same root as “remnant”: it names continuity, not a separate identity. Here, the remaining Kohathite families receive cities, so what remains still has a place within the shared inheritance.
ALSO GROWS
sha'ar: To remain or be left.
שָׁאַר
This is the root verb beneath the verse’s description of the families who remain.
she'erit: Remnant, remainder.
שְׁאֵרִית
Jeremiah uses this same-root word for Israel’s remnant, connecting those who remain with a people still held together.
she'ar: Rest, remainder.
שְׁאָר
This noun preserves the root’s sense of what continues after something has been left.
אֶפְרַיִם
Ephrayim
GROWS FROM
פרה
parah
To bear fruit or become fruitful.
Ephraim’s name carries the language of fruitfulness. The verse places the remaining families’ cities within Ephraim’s share, bringing “remainder” and “fruitfulness” together in its wording without explaining the link.
ALSO GROWS
hifrani: He made me fruitful.
הִפְרַנִי
This form appears in Genesis 41:52, where Joseph explains the name Ephraim through fruitfulness.
peri: Fruit.
פְּרִי
This noun shares the fruitfulness root carried by Ephraim’s name.
גוֹרָלָם
goralam
GROWS FROM
גּוֹרָל
goral
A lot or share assigned through lot.
“cities of their lot” in this verse is goralam. Goral can name both the lot used in apportioning and the share assigned. Here, the lot is not abstract fate: it takes the concrete form of cities where the families dwell.
ALSO GROWS
goral: Lot; assigned share.
גּוֹרָל
This is the singular form within “their lot,” naming the portion the families possess.
goralot: Lots; plural of lot.
גּוֹרָלוֹת
The plural makes the distribution of portions visible across a larger community.
THE PATTERN
Belonging in a larger people becomes concrete when what the community holds is assigned as a place or share.
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.God settles the lone ones into households; he brings out the bound ones in chains; but the ones who turn away dwell in a parched land.and set them down at the feet of the sent ones, and it was given out to each as anyone had need.THE THREAD
For thus says the LORD, Ring out with joy for Jacob, and shout at the head of the nations. Make it heard, praise, and say, O LORD, deliver your people, the remnant of Israel.Joshua uses הַנִּשְׁאָרִים (hannish’arim, those remaining); Jeremiah names Israel’s שְׁאֵרִית (she’erit, remnant) from the same שאר root. In both verses, what remains is still named as part of a people.
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