What Does Joshua 21:26 Mean?
All the cities were ten with their pastures for the families of the children of Kohath that remained.
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
All the cities were ten with their suburbs for the families of the children of Kohath that remained.THE KEY
The allotment counts the open ground around each city as part of a people’s place, so habitation reaches beyond the walls.
THE MEANING
Your place is larger than the walls where you dwell: the surrounding ground also belongs to what makes a place livable. The verse counts both the ten cities and their open land, giving habitation a defined extent.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The assumption that only the dwelling itself counts as provision is undone: the surrounding land belongs to the allotment too.
THE ROOT
וּמִגְרְשֵׁיהֶן
u-migrāšêhen
GROWS FROM
גרש
To drive out or expel; the related noun names open ground around a town.
“pastures” in this verse is u-migrāšêhen. The shared consonants connect the open land around a city with the root’s sense of outward movement. Here the allotment includes more than the built center: it includes designated ground around it.
ALSO GROWS
gāraš: To drive out or expel.
גָּרַשׁ
This verb shares the seed consonants with the noun for the land outside a town’s built center.
migrāš: Common or pastureland surrounding a city.
מִגְרָשׁ
This is the singular form of the word in the verse, naming the surrounding ground as part of the allotted place.
הַנּוֹתָרִים
han-notarim
GROWS FROM
יתר
To remain, be left over, or be more.
“remained” in this verse is han-notarim. The phrase identifies the rest of the Kohathite families within the distribution, rather than necessarily describing survivors after a catastrophe. The root also carries the sense of what is left beyond, while the verse gives this family group a definite share and count.
ALSO GROWS
yōtēr: More, or what remains beyond a given amount.
יוֹתֵר
Its sense of what is left over echoes the verse’s identification of the remaining Kohathite families.
yitrôn: Profit or advantage.
יִתְרוֹן
This related form carries the sense of what remains as a gain or surplus, widening the root’s sense beyond simple survival.
THE PATTERN
A dwelling is given with an extent around it, so habitation includes its assigned bounds and surrounding ground.
The cities shall be theirs to settle in, and the pasturelands shall be for their cattle, for their goods, and for all their beasts.The cords fall to me in sweet places; indeed, my inheritance is beautiful.And he made from one blood every nation of humankind to settle upon all the face of the earth, marking out their fitted seasons and setting the boundary stones of their dwelling.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 35:3 uses מִגְרָשׁ (migrāš, open ground around a town), the same word translated “suburbs” here, and names what that ground holds: cattle, goods, and beasts. The Kohathite allotment therefore includes the practical space around the settlement as part of its place to dwell.
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