What Does Joshua 21:36 Mean?
And out of the tribe of Reuben, Bezer with her pastures, and Jahaza with her pastures,
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 out of the tribe of Reuben, Bezer with her suburbs, and Jahazah with her suburbs,THE KEY
Bezer’s name carries the image of a fortress, and this refuge city sits inside Reuben’s inheritance.
THE MEANING
The verse gives refuge a place within shared belonging: Bezer, whose name carries the image of a fortress, sits within Reuben’s territory. Its surrounding open land is part of the provision too, so shelter includes space around the city.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that refuge must be found outside the community: Bezer is placed within a tribe’s inheritance.
THE ROOT
בֶּצֶר
Beṣer
GROWS FROM
בצר
To fortify or make inaccessible; a stronghold.
Bezer’s name carries the image of a fortified place. Joshua 20:8 names this same city as a city of refuge, so its name and its role meet: shelter is built into the shared territory.
ALSO GROWS
bāṣar: To fortify or make inaccessible.
בָּצַר
The verb gives the name its sense of defended shelter.
mibṣār: Fortress, stronghold.
מִבְצָר
This noun from the same root makes the image in Bezer’s name concrete.
מִגְרָשֶׁיהָ
migrāšêhā
GROWS FROM
גרש
To drive out or send away; the related noun refers to open land around a settlement.
The word translated “suburbs” includes the open ground around a city, often used as pasture. The allotment holds both the city and the space around it as part of the provision.
ALSO GROWS
gāraš: To drive out, expel.
גָּרַשׁ
This verb gives the root’s sense of movement outward.
migrāš: Common open land or pasture around a city.
מִגְרָשׁ
This is the noun behind “suburbs,” naming the land attached to the city beyond its built space.
THE PATTERN
Shared life makes room for refuge and dedicated service within its own landscape.
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.And across the Jordan, by Jericho toward the sunrise, they set Bezer in the wilderness upon the plain out of the tribe of Reuben, and Ramoth in Gilead out of the tribe of Gad, and Golan in Bashan out of the tribe of Manasseh.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
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.This verse uses the same Hebrew word, מִגְרָשׁ (migrāš), for the open land translated “suburbs.” It shows that the city’s surrounding ground belongs to the provision too: the allotment makes room for dwelling beyond the walls.
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