What Does Joshua 21:31 Mean?
Helkath with her pastures, and Rehob with her pastures; four 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
Helkath with her suburbs, and Rehob with her suburbs; four cities.THE KEY
The names pair a portion (Helkath) with a broad place (Rehob), giving this list of cities both allotment and spaciousness.
THE MEANING
The verse holds two images together for you now: an assigned portion and a broad place. Helkath carries the sense of a share, while Rehob carries breadth, so the list’s four cities sound both measured and spacious.
THE ROOT
חֶלְקַת
Ḥelqath
GROWS FROM
ח־ל־ק
ḥ-l-q
To divide or apportion; a share or portion.
Helkath carries the same root as the Hebrew word for a portion and the verb for apportioning. The city’s name makes the allotment in this verse sound like a share named from the act of assigning it.
ALSO GROWS
ḥēleq: An allotted part or share.
חֵלֶק
This noun makes the name Helkath legible as a portion rather than an arbitrary label.
ḥālaq: To divide, assign, or distribute shares.
חָלַק
The verb reveals the action beneath a portion: a whole is divided into allotted shares.
רְחֹב
Rĕḥōb
GROWS FROM
ר־ח־ב
r-ḥ-b
To be broad, wide, or spacious.
Rehob belongs to the root that means becoming broad. Beside Helkath, meaning “portion,” its name lets the list hold both a measured share and an image of room, an association the English place-names conceal.
ALSO GROWS
rāḥav: To become broad or spacious.
רָחַב
This verb shares Rehob’s root and makes its sense of breadth visible.
merḥāv: An open or spacious place.
מֶרְחָב
This noun carries the same root into the image of a place with room, as in Psalm 18:19.
THE PATTERN
Scripture can hold a received portion and expanding room together.
The LORD is the portion of my share and of my cup; you hold fast my lot.Widen the place of your tent, and let the curtains of your dwellings stretch out. Do not hold back; lengthen your cords, and grip your pegs.In my Father's house are many places to remain. If it were not so, I would have told you, for I go to make ready a place for you.THE THREAD
He brings me out into a broad place; he pulls me loose, because he delights in me.Rehob (רְחֹב, rĕḥōb, “broad place”) and מֶרְחָב (merḥāv, “open breadth”) share the root ר־ח־ב (r-ḥ-b, “be broad”). Psalm 18:19 lets the place-name’s root become a living image of being brought out into room.
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