What Does Joshua 21:27 Mean?
And unto the children of Gershon, of the families of the Levites, out of the other half tribe of Manasseh they gave Golan in Bashan with her pastures, to be a city of refuge for the crusher; and Beeshterah with her pastures; two cities.
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 unto the children of Gershon, of the families of the Levites, out of the other half tribe of Manasseh they gave Golan in Bashan with her suburbs, to be a city of refuge for the slayer; and Beesh-terah with her suburbs; two cities.THE KEY
The refuge is a receiving place: even the slayer is held beyond vengeance until judgment can speak.
THE MEANING
A place receives the person named here as a slayer and keeps that life within a boundary. The harm is not erased; protection gives judgment time to establish what happened before retaliation closes the case. Refuge keeps a life open while judgment is pending.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a life marked by killing must be surrendered immediately to vengeance before the case is heard.
THE ROOT
מִקְלָט
miqlāṭ
GROWS FROM
קלט
q-l-ṭ
Receive, take in, absorb.
The Hebrew word for refuge belongs to a root of receiving or absorbing. It pictures safety as being taken in behind a boundary, which is what protects the slayer from immediate retaliation.
ALSO GROWS
qālaṭ: Receive, take in, absorb.
קָלַט
This verbal sense makes refuge a receiving place.
qelita: Reception, absorption.
קְלִיטָה
The same consonants continue to carry the sense of being taken in.
מְנַשֶּׁה
Menasheh
GROWS FROM
נשה
n-sh-h
Forget; cause to forget.
Manasseh’s name carries the sense “causing forgetfulness,” and the verse places Golan in Manasseh’s territory. The refuge keeps the slayer alive without declaring the killing forgotten: shelter and judgment remain together.
ALSO GROWS
nashah: Forget.
נָשָׁה
This is the verb associated with the name’s meaning.
nashani: He caused me to forget.
נַשַּׁנִי
Genesis 41:51 uses this form when explaining the name Manasseh.
THE PATTERN
A refuge receives life in danger and prevents the threat from having the final word.
And they shall be cities of escape for you from the blood-redeemer, so that the crusher does not die until he stands before the assembly for judgment.And this is the word concerning the slayer who shall flee there, that he may live. Whoever strikes his neighbor by straying, not hating him from yesterday or the day before;So that through two unshifting deeds, in which it is without power for God to lie, we might have a strong comfort, we who have fled for refuge to grip the hope lying before us.THE THREAD
And they shall be cities of escape for you from the blood-redeemer, so that the crusher does not die until he stands before the assembly for judgment.Joshua names Golan as a city of refuge; Numbers explains its force: the avenger cannot kill the manslayer before the congregation hears the case. The shared word מִקְלָט (miqlāṭ, refuge) makes the connection concrete: refuge receives the fugitive while judgment remains pending.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us